Maddys+story!

By Madalynn Armstrong
 * The Key**

"Hide, before anyone sees us!" whispered Mathew as he quickly grabbed the key and bent down to pick up his leather bag. "Jack! Come on, we have to hurry!"

Suddenly they heard footsteps coming closer, and closer. Jack and Mathew were dead silent, their hearts felt like they were beating one hundred times a second. All they could hear were the sounds of the footsteps making splashes in the puddles on the hard, stony ground. Water was dripping from the roof, and every drip seemed to sound as loud as a ten-foot wave crashing down on a beach.

Then all of a sudden everything was quiet, no more dripping, no more footsteps, just silence. A bead of sweat dripped down Mathew's head as his eyes darted around the dark, cold, stony room. But he could see nothing, only darkness that seemed to go on forever. The footsteps began once again, this time they seemed really close, and they were still getting closer, and closer, and closer.

Chapter 1

Screaming filled the air, along with terrified screams for help. Then there was complete silence. All you could hear was the heavy breathing of the now only 12 boys. They knew Mathew and Jack were not coming back. "There goes another two," whispered Jake solemnly.

The whole city of Narkan had been taken over by the Markegings.The Markegings are mutant creatures that had taken over the city two months ago, because their old city was overpopulating. When Jake and his friends decided they should help free the city they went up to the leader Markeging castle to try to steal back the key to the city. If they succeeded the whole destroyed city would be restored, and the Markegings would be forced to leave. While they were searching, some of the guards grabbed them and locked them in a big stone room. Ever since they have been trying to escape, but have failed each time, losing friends along the way.

"I'm thinking we should do an ambush. I know that only 3 guards work here at a time, although they are extremely powerful they can not get us all at once," explained Jake as the rest of the boys listened carefully. "So here is the plan. We first pick the lock to open the door, then we all leave at once. When we run into a guard we split into two groups.The first group leaves first in the other direction so the guard follows, then the rest of us go the other way up to the room where they keep the key." All the boys nodded, they would do the ambush in exactly on hour.

Chapter 2

"You guys ready? asked Mark in a terrified tone.OK then, lets do this." He shoved the bobby pin he kept in his pocket into the lock in the door, he turned it and it made a click. The door was unlocked and the boys were ready.” 1.....2.....3... GO!”

They all rushed out the door and when they were running down the long, stone corridor a Markeging guard turned around the corner and stared at them. "SPLIT UP!" yelled Jake. So the boys did, the first group ran past the guard and turned right. The guard charged after them.

When they thought they had gone another guard came up behind them. They turned quickly and saw it. The mutant had 3 eyes, each one a dull yellow, and skin as thick as a hippopotamus'. It began to charge towards them, and they all dove out of the way,except for Mike. The creature hit him with its huge head and Mike went flying and hit the cement wall. He didn't move, and didn't speak.

The guard then turned around and began to charge to the rest of the boys. They then began to sprint as fast as they could towards the stairs that lead up the room with the key.They then saw the stairs. "Jake, you go up the stairs, we will go the the other direction and distract him," explained Mitch, Jake nodded. Jake began to run up the stairs, but instead of the guard following the other boys, he began to follow him instead!

Jake began to run faster. He was scared to death. Then Jake saw the door. He quickly opened it, went inside and slammed the door shut, just as the Markegings 5-inch teeth bit the doorknob. He locked the door, and turned around to see he was staring at a huge maze. He figured that the key’s probably in the very center. He began to walk into the maze, hoping he would be able to find the lost key.

Chapter 3

After only 2 minutes of walking Jake was already lost. There were 3 ways he could go, left, right, or straight ahead. He couldn’t decide which way to go. Then out from the left side a Markeging walked out. That made Jake's decision way easier. He sprinted into the path on the right and continued turning down each of the paths with no sense where he was going.

Then he saw it, a big glass casing holding the golden key. He sighed in relief. He had done it! Then he remembered the Markeging that was chasing him. He has to hurry. But his hopes soon went down as he saw the glass casing was locked! He was in panic, but then he remember the pin he kept in his pocket, like all the other boys. He stuck the pin into the lock and twisted around until it clicked.

He grabbed the key just as the Markeging came into sight. He saw the hole the key was meant to go into. It was on the big metal slab the glass casing was sitting on. He put the key into it and twisted it. Then all of a sudden the big concrete slab began to slowly sink into the ground. When it was out of sight the hole turned into a portal. It then began to make whisping noises and it sucked in the Markeging that was about to charge. Then one by one through the paths of the mase Markegings were being sucked into the portal.

Jake watched in amazement as the last Markeging got sucked into the portal. The portal then closed, and there was a huge explosion. Jake could not see anything, but when he could see again he noticed that he was no longer in the stone maze. He was in the middle of the city of Narkan. He had saved the city, and all of the city folk looked confused as they looked around, but then broke into a cheer. Jake had saved the city of Narkan.

The End