Return To The Previous Story - An Easter For Torry
It all started when Mr. Trim was making some new gloves that did not conduct electricity. He thought he’d need them since Jack, Bill, and Kenny were totally dependent on wires and electricity. As soon as Mr. Trim left Dan and Randy came in. They were ready to test the gloves. Unknown to them the gloves had already been tested and marked failure.
Randy put the gloves on, unscrewed a light bulb, and stuck his finger in the empty socket. Dan turned the lamp on.
“I can’t get my finger out!” gasped Randy.
If anyone but Dan had been with him they would have tried to pull Randy out and would have been shocked too, but Dan turned the lamp off. Randy collapsed to the ground.
“You saved my life!” he exclaimed.
“Make that twice. I saved your life on Venus 3 years ago,” bragged Dan.
“You don’t have to rub it in,” said Randy. “I’ll pay you back.”
There was a hole in the glove and his finger was pitch black. Two weeks later Mr. Trim perfected the gloves and Randy’s hand was feeling better. That’s when Amy came.
“Mr. Trim!” she blurted. “Frisky’s gone! All I could find was this!”
She handed him the note. Dan, John, and Randy stopped what they were doing and listened as Mr. Trim read the note.
“To whoever it may concern,” he read. “We have Frisky and want to challenge you to a final showdown. Come to Bill’s lab tomorrow. If you refuse you will never see the cat again and you will all perish, one by one. Signed, Jack, Bill, and Kenny.”
The next day was the first day of summer vacation and they all got together and decided whether or not to except the challenge.
“I always wanted a final showdown!” argued Bob.
They took a vote on it. Nine were in favor. Only two were against, so they set off for Bill’s lab. Mr. Trim swooped up the perfected gloves on and the way out thinking they might come in handy and he was right.
When they got to the mouth of the cave, which was the only entrance to the cave, a voice on the speaker came on. It was Kenny’s.
“Eleven stupid fools, entering my den. One will fall through a trap door and then they’ll be ten.”
“Look out for trap doors!” yelled Torry.
“What trap do-or-ors?” asked Bob as he stepped in the cave and fell through a trap door.
Far away they could hear Bob yell, “No! NO! No-O!” and then all was silent.
“One down, ten to go,” laughed Kenny. “I’ll get you all one by one.”
They couldn’t go through the cave because of the trap door so they climbed up a vine to the right of the cave entrance. Kenny came back on the speaker again.
“Ten of my foes, climbing up a vine. The vines will get one and then they’ll be nine.”
When Betty, who was next to last, reached a certain spot the vines grabbed her arms and legs. She struggled but it did no good. Then a small door opened and Betty was pulled through it. John, who was last, was able to slip through the door before it shut. The others made it to the top.
“Nine, all foes. All they can do is wait. Mr. Trim will sink in quicksand and then they’ll be eight,” said Kenny.
As soon as he finished saying that a trapdoor opened under Mr. Trim. He fell onto a short slide ending in a vat of quicksand. Mrs. Trim got on the slide to save her husband. The slide raised and then lowered. Mrs. Trim couldn’t hang on. She too fell into the vat of quicksand and the trapdoor closed.
Kenny spoke into the speaker.
“Eight amazed fools, who once were eleven. Togetherness is wonderful for now they’re only seven!” exclaimed Kenny.
“Poor Mrs. Trim!” stated Amy. “She was opposed to this idea.”
“Don’t give up hope on her yet,” suggested Torry.
He paused for a few seconds and then added, “or anyone else.”
Meanwhile John was almost there. The others were near the edge of some woods. That’s when Kenny came on the speaker again.
“Seven of my enemies, really in a fix. Height isn’t always an advantage for soon there will be six!”
As Kenny finished saying that Artie, who was 4th, broke a beam 6 feet from the ground. The beam caused a trap door right under Artie’s feet to open. After he was gone, the trapdoor closed again. (He was also opposed to the final showdown.)
“Half down and half to go. I’ll get you all one by one,” declared Kenny.
“We’ve won!” added Bill.
“Yeah!” shouted Jack who was looking for an excuse to say something on the speaker.
Meanwhile John just got out of the tunnel (big trap) and was following the main hallway to find Jack, Bill, and Kenny. At the end of the hallway there was a big door. John opened it. Inside was a cylindrical shaped room with the wall made entirely out of computers. Directly opposite the door was Kenny with his back to John. He was facing a microphone.
“That must be how he talks into all the speakers,” thought John.
To his left, was Jack facing the wall. To his right, was an empty chair and a desk with all kinds of machinery. It was Bill’s desk. Just then Kenny turned around.
“Freeze!” yelled John holding a gun he found in the halls in firing position.
Kenny and Jack put their hands over their heads.
“Now release your prisoners,” ordered John. “It’s time you learned how it feels to be on the other side of a cage.”
Suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his neck. He tried to resist it but he closed his eyes and fell down. It was Bill.
Kenny looked at Bill as if to ask, “What is it?”
“Sleeping darts,” Bill replied. “Where should I put him?”
“Put him in with the other prisoners,” said Kenny. “Good thing you got suspicious when you didn’t see John on our T.V. camera or this would have been the end of us.”
Bill and Jack carried John to where the others were.
“Six of my enemies, trying to stay alive. John was the toughest, but now they are five,” laughed Bill.
He tried to hide it but you could see he was proud he was to have captured John and saved them from eternal failure.
Meanwhile Torry, Dan, Amy, Randy, and Victor (that’s all who are left) decided to go into the cave they were running away from.
On their way back, Torry suddenly thought, “The vines! How do we go past them?”
Torry was thinking out loud and Dan replied.
“One of us has got to distract the vines while the rest of us go down,” he said.
“It should be me!” stated Torry. “I have the best chance of escaping.”
“No,” ordered Dan. “They have T.V. cameras. That’s how they know where we are and when we’re approaching one of their traps. You told us you wanted to keep the crystal a secret from Jack, Bill, and Kenny. Remember?”
“I’ll go!” exclaimed Victor who was the youngest one and wanted to be useful for something.
“No, you’re too small,” explained Amy. “and I’m not much good at that sort of stuff.”
“And I’m no good either,” Dan added. “Torry, it looks like you’ll have to try it after all.”
“I’ll go!” declared Randy. “I have the best chance. I have a pocket knife and that’s no secret.”
He got it out. While they were talking they were walking and by this time they were half way there. When they got there Randy started down first. The others followed closely.
The vines grabbed Randy’s arms and chest. He struggled to get the pocket knife out of his pocket. Got it. He struggled even harder to get his arm free. He was being pulled into the tunnel. Randy got his arm free. He cut the vines faster than anyone in Jesterville. He started to fall but he quickly grabbed on to one of the natural vines and climbed down to the others.
“I told you I’d do it!” Randy bragged.
“There is more than one trap,” remembered Torry. “In order to get into the cave we’ll have to jump it.”
Torry jumped first. He made it. Amy went next. She made it. Victor jumped. It looked like he was going to make it but he lost his balance and fell over backwards. Torry saw it and grabbed Victor’s hands just in time, but now both of them were falling. Amy grabbed on to Torry. Dan jumped over to help but they didn’t need it. Slowly they pulled Victor up. They tumbled over and Dan got over just in time to untangle them.
Randy jumped over and they walked down a cave. They had no trouble until they got to a fork.
“We’ll have to search both tunnels but none of us will go alone,” explained Torry. “Dan and Amy will take the passage to our right. The rest of us will take the passage to our left.”
They all agreed and did so.
Meanwhile Jack, Bill, and Kenny were watching them through their T.V. camera.
“What do we do? We can’t see them anymore,” Jack wondered.
“You two put plan Amy into action. Leave the robot here. I have another plan with it,” ordered Kenny.
Bill and Jack obeyed. Kenny spoke into the microphone again.
“Only 5 left, wishing for no more. A fool will be fooled and then they’ll be four,” said Kenny.
The speakers were on the right tunnel only so Torry’s group didn’t hear that.
“That means they got John!” Dan exclaimed.
Meanwhile Torry’s group came to another fork.
“Which way do we choose?” asked Randy.
“The right,” replied Torry. “I think I see some light up ahead.”
They were about to go off to the right when they heard a voice from the left tunnel.
“I think I hear something over there,” said the voice.
“It’s Amy!” shouted Victor. “Dan! Amy! We’re over here!”
He started running in the tunnel on the left. Randy started after him, but Torry stopped him.
“Dan and Amy are to our right,” explained Torry. “If anything, this way should lead to them.”
“No! It’s a trap!” yelled Randy.
He ran after Victor again. This time Torry let him go.
“Dead end!” Victor shouted.
Randy and Victor turned around. A door started closing at the only entrance (or exit). Randy and Victor started running as fast as they could. Randy had to slither out. He held his hands out so Torry could drag him to safety. He did so just in time.
Victor was not so fortunate. The door closed leaving Victor trapped inside. An electric light turned on and a small electric light in the ceiling was formed. A ladder came out of the opening. He could hear Torry and Randy trying to free him. He turned and faced the door.
“Go,” he said.
They hesitated.
“GO!” he ordered.
Reluctantly they turned away and walked through the tunnel on their right.
“At least they’re safe,” thought Victor as he turned around and faced Kenny with a bullet gun pointed straight at him. He had no choice but to surrender.
Meanwhile Dan and Amy were making some pretty good progress. Amy fell slightly behind. She was thinking of all kinds of things. About how she shouldn’t have been so mean to Victor when she told him he was too small. She thought that if she protected Frisky better this never would have happened. She was also thinking about which one of them went and who would go next.
Her thoughts were interrupted when Kenny came on the speaker again. She and Dan both listened closely.
Kenny said, “Four of you left, wondering who it’ll be. Curiousity shall destroy her and then they’ll be three.”
“Her, that means I’m next,” thought Amy.
Just then she heard a meow.
“Frisky!” she exclaimed as she ran back a few yards and turned right.
She was inside a small room. The room had electronic lighting. As her eyes adjusted she remembered Kenny’s warning but didn’t pay any attention to it. When her eyes adjusted to it, she saw Frisky locked in a cage. She was about to release him but Jack grabbed her from behind and Bill shot her with a sleeping dart.
There was something in the far right corner that looked just like Amy. Bill turned it on.
“And now this Amy robot will destroy the rest of them,” he said.
The Amy robot caught up with Dan. It was about to destroy him but Torry and Randy came in through a side tunnel. They looked ahead and saw who they thought was Amy and Dan.
“So the tunnels really do connect,” Torry stated.
Dan turned around.
“Torry!” he yelled.
He ran towards them. The robot did the same.
“What about me?” asked Randy.
“Oh, hi to you too,” he added when he got there and got his breath. “What happened to Victor?”
“He got captured,” Torry replied.
“As long as we’re together let’s all go back,” the robot ordered in Amy’s voice.
“Why?” questioned Randy.
“So we can search in groups of 2,” answered the robot again in Amy’s voice. (In order to destroy all of them it had to do it one by one.)
“If you want to leave so badly why don’t you and Randy go back there? You know where the exit is,” Dan commanded.
“Why do I have to go with her?” asked Randy turning to the robot who he thought was Amy. “No offense, Amy, but I want to explore the cave too.”
“No offense, Randy, but you are the least capable of the three of us. Torry has the crystal and I have the brains. You just aren’t needed as much,” Dan replied.
“O.K.,” agreed Randy unwillingly as he slowly walked down the passage Dan and Amy had taken.
“I’d rather go down the other tunnel,” explained Amy. (If they went through the other way Randy would have seen the real Amy sleeping and figured it out.)
“I though you’d be glad I’d go out with you,” argued Randy. “but instead you want to go out this certain passageway!”
“I’ll race you there,” interrupted the robot.
Randy slowly turned toward the other passage and then darted down it. The robot followed.
“At least I can take my anger out by running,” he thought as he ran even faster.
Dan and Torry went off the other way as the tunnel took a sharp turn to the left. As soon as both groups left Jack and Bill carried Amy to and up the ladder in Victor’s trap. When Randy and the robot got out they heard Kenny again.
“Three of my enemies, wondering what to do. One will overtrust the other and then they’ll be two,” he laughed.
“Three? I wonder who was already captured?” wondered Randy. “You!” declared Bill with his dart gun pointed at Randy.
“Let’s rush him,” Randy ordered to who he thought was Amy. “It’s two against one.”
Jack jumped over.
“On the contrary,” corrected Jack turning the robot off. “it’s one against two.”
Bill fired a sleeping dart at Randy. At that range Randy had plenty of time to dodge it, but instead he got his pocket knife out and opened the blade. Then the effects of the dart took over. He dropped the knife and fell to the ground.
“How do we jump the trap carrying him?” asked Jack.
“Just dump him in,” replied Bill. “He’ll wind up in the same place no matter how we get him there.”
After they did so Jack turned the robot back on and they both left.
Meanwhile a door was closed right in front of Torry and Dan. Thinking it was a trap they both ran back the other way as fast as they could back the other way.
When they got to the fork Dan commanded, “Let’s separate.”
“Why?” wondered Torry. “I thought you agreed that none of us should go alone.”
“That was when there were 5 of us. As far as we know we could be the only 2 people left,” explained Dan.
So they separated. Dan got to the robot first.
“Where’s Randy?” he questioned.
“He’s been captured. I hid. And you don’t have to keep jumping that trap. They deactivated it,” it answered.
Torry got there but he was only half listening. He was looking down at Randy’s pocket knife with the blade open. He took the pocket knife and walked up to the robot. He stuck the knife in Amy’s back.
“What are you doing?” yelled Dan.
He pulled the knife straight down. There was the snapping of wire and the robot fell to the ground.
“How did you know?” asked Dan.
“When Randy leaves his blade open it’s a warning for the rest of us and I don’t have time to tell you the rest,” replied Torry going to the left of the cliff.
Dan followed. There was a 9 foot drop to their left so they had to go slowly. Dan slipped. Torry tried to save him but it was too late. Luckily there was a net underneath.
“Two left, free under the sun. One of them slipped and now there’s only one,” explained Kenny.
When Torry got out of there he saw Jack, Bill, and Kenny. Kenny pushed him in another net.
“One of them left, thinking he’s a hero. I pushed him off and now there are zero,” started Kenny. “When the sun goes down and the day is done I’ll have you all one by one. From Bob through a trap door to Torry with a fall and now …”
“Jack,” said Jack.
“Bill,” added Bill.
“… And Kenny,” declared Kenny. “are rulers of them all.”
As soon as they left, Torry turned into water, went through the net, and hit the ground safely. Torry changed back and saw a small hole in the cliff. Torry turned into a bird and flew up and through it. Frisky saw him and stared at him. He changed back. A door opened and out came Jack, Bill, and Kenny.
“I don’t know how you got here,” stated Kenny. “but I’m prepared to make a deal with you. I will release the others if you give me the digits to the combination to Mr. Trim’s safe and I’ll release Frisky no matter what.”
He put Frisky outside.
“O.K.,” agreed Torry. “53X730.”
“Your far too trusty,” Kenny unknowingly repeated a Star Wars line.
Torry got away. Kenny and Jack went off to Mr. Trim’s lab. Torry found Bill’s prison. He opened it. Bob was sleep strapped to a chair.
“Wake up!” he yelled.
He freed Bob and together they started unlocking the rest of the prisons.
“Someone’s freeing the prisoners,” Bill called.
“Lock them!” ordered Kenny.
By that time all but Dan were free. The door was transparent. Then the room started filling up with water. They unstrapped the others.
“The only way to make the door open is to connect the black and red wires,” – Mr. Trim (Ben)
Randy – “I’ll do it. I owe him.”
Torry – “I think I should do it.”
Randy – “I’m not leaving.”
Torry – “Then take my crystal.”
Torry gave Randy his crystal and Mr. Trim the gloves. Then everyone but Randy climbed up to safety. Randy cut the black wire. After what seemed like hours it was cut, then the red. He put them together. There was a big explosion and water went everywhere. Artie climbed halfway down and somehow grabbed Dan.
“I put one over on them,” Torry was telling the others. “I gave them the digits to the combination but not in the right order.” (It was really 35X037.)
Torry decided to go look for Randy. An hour later, he found his crystal. He saw another opening. Just outside was Randy’s pocket knife blade out. He was captured and for a chance Jack, Bill, and Kenny had won.
Copyright MCMLXXXIII, MCMXCIX
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