by RL Stine
Jack’s smile reveals the same big, sharp fangs.
Hope you don’t have a sweet tooth. Because it doesn’t look as if you’ll be around for dessert!
THE END
The trapdoor flies open more easily than you expected. You drop to your knees, eager to explore whatever is down there.
But there’s no way down! No stairs. No ladder. Not even a rope to climb.
Fog seeps up through the open trapdoor. As the misty wisps touch you, you shiver. You’ve never felt anything so cold!
On instinct, you try to leap for the doorway. But it’s already too late. Your muscles won’t obey. They’re frozen!
The fog is all around you now. A thin film of ice forms on your skin. Dimly, you notice Bob and another boy, peering through the doorway at you.
“You were right, Bob. It was a trap,” the strange boy says. “That kid was just what we needed. Better a stranger should get hurt than one of us.”
That’s all you hear. Then the icicles on your front half pull you off balance. You topple forward. Into the dark hole.
SPLOOSH! You plunge into icy black water. A swift current whirls you away. What’s happening? you wonder foggily.
Then you pass out.
Wash up on PAGE 137.
Tiny gray dots swirl around you. They land, covering your arms, your hands, your face.
You try to brush the stuff away. It won’t come off!
“Bugs!” Russell yells in horror. “They’re teeny, tiny bugs!”
You feel a creepy-crawly sensation on your skin. Then it starts to sting — like millions of pin-pricks. You blink your eyes and hold your nose, trying to keeps the bugs away. But you feel suddenly weak. It’s as though these tiny things are sucking the juices right out of you!
Alicia keels over, hitting the floor. She’s covered in gray gunk. She looks just like those piles of mold you passed in the other rooms.
You must look like one, too, you think as you fall.
And soon, that’s all you’ll be….
THE END
You want to get out of this maze now. Besides, Cammie and Jack are too weird for you. “Thanks, but I’d like to see how I get along on my own,” you tell them. You fake a smile. “Maybe I’ll see you later.”
You hurry out of the room.
Behind you, they start snarling at each other again. “You let that kid get away!” Jack’s voice echoes through the maze.
“Oh, right,” Cammie answers. “It was you and your bug-eating! You should never do that in front of newcomers.”
“Speaking of bugs —” Jack’s voice stops. But you hear a loud CRUNCH! as if he’s biting into something.
Something with a hard shell.
“Come on!” Cammie orders.
Then you hear their footsteps. Coming your way!
Do you run? If so, turn to PAGE 50.
Or should you try to hide? Turn to PAGE 125.
When your eyes clear, you find Milo standing over you. He’s changed back to his usual ugly but not-so-scary self. A big grin stretches across his warty face.
“You d-didn’t kill me?” you stammer.
Your voice! It comes out as a gurgling roar.
“Kill you?” Milo laughs. “Kid, you’re my gold mine! I’m going to make you my partner — my star!”
“What?” You sit up — and bob squishily for a moment. What’s going on? Why is Milo so far below?
You wipe a drop of sweat off your forehead. Eek! Where did that snail come from? And when did your hand turn purple?
Oh, no. Milo has mutated you into King Jellyjam!
“We’ll make tons of money!” Milo gloats. He waves a hand in front of his face. “Of course, some of it will have to go on breath mints and deodorant for you.”
Your show is a big hit. You start with TV, but soon you’re starring in movies. Huge crowds turn out whenever you make a personal appearance. They love you!
But the real moneymakers are your El Grosso Snail Farms. Where do you get the snails?
No sweat!
THE END
You catch the test tube, but the top pops off. POOF! The world disappears in a puff of purple smoke. Your skin begins to crawl. Your bones ache.
Then the cloud disappears. No — it’s just down around your middle. The lab seems smaller.
No, wait. It’s you. You’re growing.
The purple cloud is farther down, and the roof of the cave is coming closer and closer to your head.
That’s ninety feet high! you think. That makes me —
Your thoughts get jumbled as your head bumps against the ceiling of the cave. You close your eyes, bracing yourself to get squashed against the roof. But it doesn’t happen.
You’ve stopped growing!
Looking down at yourself, you realize you’ve changed. Your skin is green and scaly. And you have a thick tail.
Gulping, you run your fingers over your face. Oh, no! Bulging eyes, scales, sharp teeth, tusks —
Tusks?
What kind of monster has Tex Loudsnore turned you into?
Learn the worst on PAGE 34.
For a moment, you can’t tear your eyes away from Frankenstein. But when he lurches toward you, you leap away. You dash down a hallway. The creature’s snarling cry echoes behind you.
As you race through the next doorway, you scrape against the rough plywood. Your jacket tugs you back when you take the next step. It’s caught on a bunch of splinters!
You try to pull loose, but you can’t get free! And here come the monster’s scraping footsteps! Desperately, you wrestle out of the coat and keep running.
You turn left. Then right. Then right again. After a few moments, the creature’s snarls become fainter. It sounds as if you’re losing him!
Should you keep running? Or, now that he can’t see you, should you try sneaking away from the creature?
One thing’s for sure — you’ve got to find the way out of this maze. Fast!
If you run, turn to PAGE 86.
If you sneak away, turn to PAGE 65.
“Here, buggie-buggie,” you whisper. You’re worried. This is an important moment in comic book history. If one detail isn’t right, there might be no Ballistic Bug.
The glowing bug scuttles toward you. You stick out your arm …
Wow! Look at the size of that stinger!
The bug buzzes around your arm. Then it strikes!
“Yeeee-OW!” you yell. It’s a lot more painful than Peewee Parkbench made it look in the comic.
In fact, it feels as if someone injected molten lava into your veins….
You collapse, gasping. You can’t feel your hands or feet anymore. Something has definitely gone wrong.
Remember how you worried about one detail being different at this moment in history? Well, there was. You were here, not Peewee Parkbench.
And it seems you’re allergic to mutant bug-bites.
Fatally allergic.
The world starts to vanish in a red haze.
Maybe you should start looking for a mad doctor….
THE END
“See, it’s hard to guess time. We can’t tell whether it’s day or night in Milo’s maze,” Cammie explains.
“Milo’s maze?” you repeat. “So the guy in the comic shop is called Milo? Like the guy from The Cellar of Scary Stories?”
“He is the guy from The Cellar of Scary Stories,” Cammie replies. “Or he was. The comic was canceled years ago.”
“But if there’s no more comic, how could — wait a minute!” you yell. “Comic characters aren’t real! This is impossible!”
Jack just shivers. “With Milo, anything is possible. He blames kids for not buying enough of his comic books.”
“Is that why he trapped us down here?” you ask.
Jack shakes his shaggy head. “We aren’t sure. Sometimes we catch him spying on us. We think maybe he’s trying to scare us.”
“Trying?” you sputter. “I’m scared to death!”
Shudder along to
PAGE 107.
“I’ll go first,” Cammie declares. She leans into the glowing mirror. Then she jumps back. “Whoa!”
A face has appeared in the mirror. Milo the Mutant!
“What are you doing in my room?” he yells.
“We’ve got to get away!” Cammie cries. She turns to you. “What was beyond your doorway?”
“Just a room,” you reply, “full of boxes of comics.”
“I didn’t get a chance to look through my door,” Jack complains. “You called me in here.”
You hurry to Jack’s doorway — and gasp. Stretching up to a trapdoor in the ceiling is a ladder. It’s made of dark wood, carved into twisting shapes — snakes, dragons, weirder creatures. It’s beautiful — but strange.
You step toward the ladder. It suddenly begins to glow red. Wind swirls around it, flinging you back. The glowing form shrinks down until it’s barely a foot tall!
Milo’s laughter echoes from the mirror next door. “That takes care of the magic ladder!” he cries. “Now I’ll start the spell to take care of you!”
You gawk helplessly at the trapdoor in the ceiling. If only you could get up there. So near, and yet so far!
Move it to PAGE 52.
Your wings buzz frantically, but you can’t break Dr. Doof’s choke hold!
“Now I’ve got you, insect!” he roars, shaking you.
You try every trick you ever read in a Ballistic Bug comic book. But nothing weakens the grip of those steel-clad fingers. You’re about half a breath short of choking as Dr. Doof climbs to his feet.
But then the evil doctor hauls you close and whispers, “Have you gone completely batty, bug? That sting-bolt of yours wasn’t in the script!”
Script?
What’s Dr. Doof talking about? Find out on PAGE 38.
You tag along with the tour group, thinking hard. You don’t even glance at the huge, powerful machines in the nuclear plant. Instead, you keep your eyes peeled for a glowing insect. That’s the creature that will bite Peewee Parkbench and give him his amazing insect powers.
At last, you spot the bug.
Whoa, is that thing ugly! It’s obviously some kind of nuclear mutant. It looks like an overgrown roach — with a huge, nasty stinger. You couldn’t really see that part in the comics. All the picture showed was a line in the air and the word BZZZZZ! In the next picture, Peewee Parkbench yelled, “Ow!”
Now you can see why.
Do you really want to let that ugly thing sting you?
True, you want to make sure comics history doesn’t change. But you also want to get back home. Maybe you should just jump to some other comic and keep searching for a mad scientist.
Better decide fast. The bug is coming your way!
If you use the magic words to leap to another Ballistic Bug adventure, turn to PAGE 15.
If you let the bad bug bite, turn to PAGE 116.
You roll, throw, or shove battered pieces of wood away. Your arms are tired and burning from all this work. And you still face the hardest job of all. Charlie is pinned under a whole sheet of plywood. How are you going to lift a slab of wood twice as tall as you are — and three times as wide?
“I’ll try to push from down here,” Charlie says.
“And I’ll — oof! — pull,” you say.
You pull until you’re red in the face and your arms are shaking. But the wooden slab hasn’t moved an inch!
Could it be stuck on something? You glance around — and notice a heavy bull’s hoof resting on one corner of the slab.
Your eyes travel slowly up the bull’s leg. Past the heavy body. The eagle’s wings. And on to the lion’s head.
The beast stares down at you. You’ve never heard of lions laughing before, but that’s what this one seems to be doing.
Slowly, the beast paces forward. And you have nowhere to run, no walls to hide behind.
Oh, well. It seems your luck was bad after all. But you were right about one thing.
You stayed to help — and that was final!
THE END
You swallow hard. “Go for it!” you command.
Tex Loudsnore hits a button. Streaks of blue lightning crawl along the barrel of the unconfrabulator. You close your eyes and stand absolutely still.
Hey! You thought that having your atoms destroyed would hurt. Instead, you feel light. Incredibly light. As if the slightest breath could blow you away.
You open your eyes to discover that Tex Loudsnore’s laboratory is gone! Instead, you’re floating among tiny, bright spots that look like stars. They glow brilliantly, red, yellow, blue, against the solid blackness.
Giggling, you swoop upward. Multicolored stars twirl around you. Higher and higher you go, until the colored stars blur into a bright, harsh glare.
You don’t feel weightless now, but heavy. Clumsy.
Staggering around, you grab on to … a door handle! You stumble into a tiny store packed with vacuum cleaners. An old man with long gray hair grabs you by the arm as you almost fall.
“You okay, kid?” he asks.
Stagger over to PAGE 45.
Milo is ranting as you, Cammie, and Jack sneak up on him.
“I didn’t do all this for fun, you know!” the pumpkin-faced little man yells. “You’re all down here for a very serious reason, and I want you to — YOW!”
Milo yells in shock as the three of you pile onto him. For a little guy, he’s surprisingly strong. Maybe he gets his muscles from shifting around those huge boxes of comic books.
But, strong or not, there are more of you than there are of him.
It’s a short, sharp battle. But in the end Jack has Milo’s right arm, Cammie holds down his left, and you’re perched on his chest.
“You did it!” one of the captive kids cheers. “You got Milo!”
Proceed in triumph to PAGE 108.
These dirty, weird-looking kids know more about this maze than you do. “I’ll go with you guys,” you decide.
“Fine,” Cammie replies. “Follow us.”
They lead you quickly through the maze. You’re more lost than ever now.
They yank you back when you reach a doorway. Jack raises a finger to his lips — the “be quiet” sign. You don’t understand why. It sounds as if somebody is using a chain saw on the other side.
But as you tiptoe through, you find the noise doesn’t come from a machine. It comes from a pile of bandages on the floor.
No, wait. Those bandages are wrapped around a body.
Eek! A mummy!
And the mummy isn’t dead — it’s snoring!
Jack steps right over the sleeping creature. So does Cammie. They both beckon to you. The mummy makes weird gargling noises as you go to step over it. You’re shaking so badly, your toe pokes the creature right in the side.
The snores stop. Withered eyelids open. Dried-out eyes like black raisins glare up at you!
Get out of there to PAGE 60!
I’m ahead of them, you think. And I’m good at hide-and-seek.
On tiptoe, you sneak through the maze. At last, you find a little room with only one doorway. It’s hidden behind some old sheets of plywood. They’ll never find you here!
But in just a few minutes, you hear an odd noise. It sounds like someone sniffling. Trying not to cry.
As the sound gets louder, you realize it’s not someone sniffling, but someone sniffing!
A weird, humped shadow appears in the doorway. It looks like a dog, sniffing out a trail. No! It’s a shaggy-headed boy, crawling along with his nose on the floor. Jack!
A chill trickles down your spine.
A second later, Jack and Cammie block the door.
Turn to PAGE 109.
You figure you should let Dr. Doof finish the scene. It’ll give him time to calm down. Then you’ll be able to talk to him quietly.
You’re sure you’ll be able to convince him to help you!
“Let’s go on with the fight, Doc,” you suggest.
“Okay,” the villai
n says. “Since we already trashed the script, we’ll have to fake it. But make it look good. Rev up your wings.”
You start your wings buzzing. Dr. Doof suddenly leaps back.
“My grip!” he roars. “How did you break my grip?”
I didn’t, you think. He let me go, the big phony!
What a cheat these fight scenes are!
You buzz around Dr. Doof. He shouts threats while zapping blast-bolts at you — and missing.
“Okay. Get ready for the old A-233!” Doof whispers.
What’s the old A-233? you wonder frantically.
The next thing you know, Dr. Doof grabs you by the ankles!
What is the old A-233? Find out on PAGE 91!
You roll, bounce — even tumble in a somersault. Then there’s nothing underneath you!
You shoot past the end of the metal slide and slam into a plywood wall. Then you thud down onto a concrete floor. “Ooof!” you groan. That hurt!
On your hands and knees, you try to climb back up the slide that used to be a stairway. But it’s too steep and slippery. You just slither to the bottom again.
Trying to stay calm, you gaze around. You’re in a small, shadowy room. Its walls are made of plywood. An opening leads to a plywood hallway, lit by a single bulb.
You walk down the hall. After a few yards, it turns. You find yourself in another little room. This one has three doorways. You choose the right-hand one — to find yet another hall. That one zigzags to two more rooms, then a four-way intersection of corridors.
“What’s going on?” you mutter. “I feel like a rat in a maze!”
Turn to PAGE 47.
You’ll go with Bob. After all, he saved you from the lion-bull-eagle monster. He knows what he’s doing.
“Everybody for Bob’s route, raise your hand,” Russell calls.
You raise your hand. So do Dan and Alicia. Bob’s shortcut wins! Russell seems annoyed, but he doesn’t say anything.
As you file along Bob’s route, you notice that the walls of the maze are covered in gray gunk. It looks like mold. In some places there are piles of it on the floor.
“Have you ever seen this stuff before?” Russell asks Bob.
The other boy shakes his head. “No, and we shouldn’t take any chances with it. Nobody touch the walls.”
The stuff has a sharp, peppery smell. Your nose twitches as you move into a room where it coats the walls thickly.