by Oz Tellez
Chapter 8
A Great Escape
This was their chance to save their father. Jimmy pulled out the rope from his backpack and rushed to drop one end of it in the hole.
“Don’t worry dad! We’ll get you out!” Jimmy cried.
Dad grabbed his end of the rope and both children tried pulling him out but he was too heavy for them. They tried one more time, but still they could not pull their dad up.
“Damn!” Sean shouted and they children were discouraged. “Don’t give up kids. Let’s try again.”
Once more, they tried and failed, but when all hope seemed lost, kid Knot appeared behind them. He had gone around and through the tunnel again. “HI!” He exclaimed once more.
“Knot!” Both children shouted. They were glad to see him.
“Here!” Jimmy cried. “You wanna play tug-a-war?” He placed the rope within Knot’s long fingers.
Knot mumbled some words in his native language. He grabbed the rope tightly and began to pull. The children jumped in to help.
“That’s it, Knot!” Jimmy cried. “Pull!” They pulled and pulled on the rope, until finally they got their father out of the wretched hole.
The children embraced their father immediately, glad to be together again.
“Come on! Let’s get out of here.” Dad urged.
“This way!” said Jimmy. And, they rushed back into the tunnel.
Kid Knot was very excited and playful. The children and their father were playing games with him as far as he was concerned. So, he thought he run to the other side of the tunnel through the hallways instead.
His father, Papa Knot, was among a small crowd of Knot creatures. Someone had intentionally injured one their own. Papa Knot was concerned for his family, so he retreated to their living space. However, he took a different route.
The children and their father, along with A.R. came out into the Knot family room. Luckily, Mama Knot was not there. They exited into the hallway with all the glowing green crystals.
Kid Knot appeared suddenly on the other end of the hallway and from a distance he shouted, “HI!”
Halfway through the hallway, Papa Knot emerged looking for his family. He saw his son, Knot and wondered what the shouting was all about.
“Oh no!” Dad cried. “Run!”
Papa Knot turned around and saw the humans running away. He chased after them until the 5-arm Knot stepped out of Papa Knot’s living space with a long shard of glowing violet crystal—one that was very sharp. He drove Papa Knot into a wall trying to stab him, but Papa Knot stopped him.
Both giant Knot creatures broke into a fierce battle, driving each other into the walls and rolling on the ground.
As the Philips family turned the corner of the hallway, Papa Knot was thrown into it. He shook his head, stood up and dove back into the fight.
The Philips family took this opportunity to escape the Knot city.
When they reached the entrance to the cave, it was raining liquid methane, the blue lava, very intensely. Thunder resonated powerfully along the walls of the valley.
“Jimmy, Amy, bring your faceguards down!” Dad demanded. “Let’s climb down—carefully.”
As the Philips family descended, kid Knot came out looking for them. He dropped a few meters and landed in front of them. “HI!” He uttered.
“Ok. You know what?” said Jimmy. “No more saying HI.”
Playful still, the kid Knot turned around and mumbled some words to the Philips family. The rain was getting loud and intense.
“I think he wants us to climb on to his back.” Jimmy shouted.
“That’s too dangerous!” shouted his dad.
“Come on, dad!” Jimmy shouted back, “It’s the only chance we’ve got. They’ll catch up to us if we don’t.”
Dad did not like it one bit, but he agreed to it anyways. “Alright, but make sure you hold on tight.”
Dad grabbed A.R., activated the manual shutdown button, and stuffed him inside Jimmy’s backpack.
Both children climbed onto Knot’s broad back and held on to his neck. Dad did the same, holding both children down with his own weight.
Almost instantaneously, Knot jumped off the cliff and glided through the heavy rain. The Philips family was holding on as tight as they could. They were descending fast due to the extra weight and the rain pushing down on Knot’s gliders. The air resistance grew more violent as they drew closer to the ground.
Due to the lack of visibility, Knot struggled to make a clean landing. The Philips family flew off his back and into the long grass. Luckily, no one in the family was hurt. The long grass provided a nice cushion for the rough landing.
Immediately, dad picked up Amy onto his shoulders and cried, “Come on, Jimmy! Run!”
“What about Knot?” Jimmy worried.
“He’ll be fine.” Dad looked back. “He belongs with his family. Now, come on!”
Knot stood up from the long grass, hurt from the fall. In pain, began crying out for his parents.
“Good-bye, Knot!” said Jimmy.
“Jimmy!” Dad cried. “They’re coming.” A large number of Knot creatures started jumping down the mountain.
Jimmy ran towards his father as Amy cried out “Bye!”
Knot stopped crying for a moment and repeated, “BY… BY…” He paused and looked around, “BY!”
The Philips family ran as fast as they could towards the river of blue lava. The Knot creatures, including Papa and Mama Knot, began dropping in different places scattered across the long grass.
The Philips finally made it to the river and began to cross as quickly as they could. Papa Knot, seeing as he was the king, ordered his subjects to follow him after the humans, while Mama Knot took care of the wounded kid Knot.
The Philips family made it across the river, but the Knot creatures were gaining on them. Dad cried out to Jimmy, “Quickly! We can hide in the forest.”
As they reenter the dense woods, the Knot creatures stopped chasing just beyond the river.
Jimmy looked back and cried out, “Dad, wait!” Sean Philips stopped running and turned around. “They stopped chasing us.”
Dad approached Jimmy and wondered, “Huh, why would they do that?”
A thundering roar engulfed the valley at that exact moment. The Meanosaur was still out there.
“That’s why.” Jimmy replied.
“That does not sound good.” Dad turned to Jimmy, “How far is it from here to the ship?”
“If we walk, it is around four hours.” Jimmy answered.
“If we step it up, we might be able to make it there in less than two hours.” Dad informed. “You think you can handle that?”
“Of course!” Jimmy replied. “We made it this far, didn’t we?”
Dad chuckled, “Alright, stay close.”
Chapter 9
Take Off
The Philips family ran a fast as they could through the forest. Dad was tracking the direction of the ship through the system in his suit.
After two hours and a half of running and taking multiple breaks, they came into sight of the S.E. Dragonfly, partly buried in the swamp. By that time, it had stopped raining and it was getting dark, but the weather was still foggy.
They were home free, or so they thought. When they took a few steps forward, the Meanosaur emerged from behind some bushes, standing between them and the ship.
“Not good!” Dad cried as he brought his daughter, Amy, from his shoulders to the ground.
The Meanosaur charged towards them and Dad wrapped his arms around his children in order to protect them. But little did they know that the log-creature was standing right behind them. And with one swing of is sharp tail, it slapped the Meanosaur into a world of hurt.
The two massive creatures growled and roared at each other aggressively, which provided the chance for the Philips family to escape.
They ran towards their ship while the animals fought uncontrollably.
Once inside the ship, before they could
proceed to the flight deck, their suits were washed with high pressure decontaminants. They had to make sure that no harmful bacteria and other air-born pollutants contaminated their supply of oxygen.
Once the suits were cleansed, they put them away and strapped themselves in tightly because the ship was about to take off.
Dad manned the flight deck, tightened his seat belt and prepared for launch.
The S.E. Dragonfly was designed to be pulled into the upright position. Long strings of powerful cables shot out deep into the ground from the back of the ship. These strings then pulled the lower part of the ship. And like an accordion or a slinky, the ship straightened and was pointing towards the sky in a matter of minutes.
Dad turned on the roaring engines and the whole ship began to shake. The children closed their eyes and crossed their fingers, hoping nothing went wrong.
It took a moment for the ship to get off the ground, but eventually it was moving vertically through the air at supersonic speed.
The S.E. Dragonfly left the planet’s atmosphere and into the open cosmos. Once it was floating safely in space, the artificial gravity simulator turned on automatically, which made the wings of the ship begin to spin again. The simulator allowed the family to walk on ship as they would if they were on the surface of our planet.
Dad unbuckled his seat belts and went over to check on the children. “Is anyone hurt?”
The children stepped of their seats and answered, “No!”
“Thank goodness!” Dad exhaled and said, “Well, that was quite the adventure, huh?” The children remained silent. “Too bad we couldn’t grab any samples… Oh well.”
“Actually…” Jimmy remembered and dashed over to his backpack. He took out the inactive A.R. and gave it to his dad. “A.R. scanned many of the wild plants:”
Dad reactivated the robot and the first thing it said was, “Command not registered.”
Jimmy sighed and then said, “Oh, and also, we found these…” He took out the glowing crystal, the vial of blue lava, and the box of shiny minerals.
“Incredible!” Dad proudly exclaimed. “Who would have thought, you would make great scientists.”
THE END
More adventures from the Philips family to come...
Next:
Jimmy Philips and the Way-Station Mystery