Escape from the Maze
I’
“Do you see any of them?” Zoe asked.
After looking around very carefully. “No! I think this is going to be a lot harder than I thought!”
“Let’s try a different room?” Zoe suggested.
Following her lead, Josh turned to the left and walked into what appeared to be an entry.
Without hesitations, Zoe raced to the front door, flung it opened...
“Time is running out!”
Then the door closed in front of her face.
“That was very rude. The least he could have done was to give us a hint on how to capture these Fro-Meleons.
“Lets go back to the library,” Josh recommended. If we can’t see them, maybe we can feel them.
The thought made Zoe shudder as she wondered what they felt like. She was not particularly fond of reptiles, but then was it really a reptile?
After entering the room, they began running their hands across everything they could find.
A while later, Josh grabbed what he thought was one. When he looked at his hand, there was nothing to see. However, he could feel something squirming around.
!tel og fo em, it said causing Josh to drop it.
“What did you say?” Zoe asked.
“It wasn’t me. It was one of them!” Josh protested.
“Then, what language was that?”
“I have know idea, but it didn’t like me picking it up.”
“What did it feel like?” Zoe questioned, hoping it wasn’t to gross, then maybe she would be less afraid to capture one.
“Scaly!”
That didn’t make Zoe feel any better, so she began looking for a pair of gloves. When she couldn’t find any, she went to look in another room.
“Good, a kitchen! I should be able to find a pair in here.”
After searching in a few draws, she found a bunch. Grabbing two sets, she returned to the library.
When she called out to Josh, he didn’t answer.
She looked around and nothing. He was nowhere in sight.
“I hope that dual-animal didn’t infect him somehow and make him blend into his environment.
“Josh!” she called again. Still no answer.
“nuR! ediH!” she heard one of them say.
“What?”
It didn’t say anything more.
Not wanting to leave and search for Josh and get lost, Zoe started moving her “now gloved hands” across books, stacks of magazines, lamps, tables, chairs... every time she felt something, it scurried away.
Figuring this was a waste of time... they were just to fast... she went back to the entry... even though she was sure what the answer would be... she swung open the door.
“Time is running out!”
“Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Now tell me something I don’t know... like how do I capture these Fro-Meleons.
“Thanks for all your help!” Zoe said sarcastically as he started to close the door.
“Say, emoc!”
“Say what?”
Nothing! The zoo keeper didn’t say nothing... anything more before the door slammed shut.
Reluctantly, Zoe returned to the library and tried to say “emoc!”
The next thing she knew, one of them jumped on a table next to her. When she held out her hand, it walked onto it. Though she couldn’t see it, she did feel it. She slowly covered it with her other hand and quickly walked to the door at the entry, then just stood there wondering how to get the door open without letting go of the emoc in her hands.
“!derflA! ym eman si derflA”
“Do you understand me?” Zoe questioned.
She was sure it tilted it’s head, wondering what language she was speaking.
“My name is Zoe!”
When she still didn’t get a response, Zoe pushed to Fro-Meleon closed to her with one hand, flung the door open with the other and with both hands gave derflA to the zoo keeper.
Back in the library, she sat in an overstuffed recliner and began to sing.
“Emoc, emoc, we just want to go home.”
“Emoc, emoc, we just want to go home.”
Within a few minutes, she could feel several of them crawling up her legs and some more coming up her arms.
“You speak backwards, t’nod uoy?”
“tahw?” a few of them questioned.
“She repeated it in their language. ”
“Sey,” they all said in unison.
Soon Zoe learned that the Fro-Meleons left their rain forest home because it got so cold and every time that happened, they were put in a cage and brought here.
“yeht tup uoy ni a egac dna thguorb uoy ereh,” Zoe repeated. “yhW?”
“rof eht emag!”
“We just want to go home. Will you help us?” Zoe pleaded in their language.
“!oN”
“yhW ton?”
Before they could explain, she heard the front door open and the zoo keeper telling Josh , “Thank you. That makes five. Only nineteen to go,” he said and then slammed the door shut again.
“Josh, must have captured four,” she thought. “If I wait here maybe he’ll...
“Zoe, where did you go?” he asked when he came up to her.
She held up the other pair of gloves.
“To find these,” she whispered.
“Thanks,” he whispered back and put on the gloves.
“This will make it a lot easier.”
“We need a cage,” she said still whispering. “There is a bunch on my lap... asleep.
Josh left and came back with a cat carrier.
Carefully they picked up five more and quietly took them to the front door.
Once the door closed again, Josh asked, “Upstairs or the Basement?”
“Living room?” she hoped.
“Finished!”
“Kitchen?” she suggested.
“Done!”
“Den?”
“It’s on the other side of the living room,” Josh said as he pointed in that direction.
When they got there, it turned out to be a playroom more than a den. There were plastic tunnels, railings around the room, scratching posts and litter boxes.
“It’s a playroom for the “furry” kind of pet.
Once again, Zoe sat down and began the sing.
“Emoc, emoc, we just want to go home.”
“Emoc, emoc, we just want to go home.”
Josh stood there in awe, as the Fro-Meleons came to her.
With cage in hand, they waited for them to fell asleep and after taking the four of them to the zoo keeper, they decided to go upstairs.
It was somewhat warmer in the bedroom. However, there was even more heat coming from a room to the right. Even the door handle was extremely warm.
“It’s a good thing you found these gloves!” Josh complimented Zoe as he opened the door.
Driven back from a wave of hot damp air, it took them a few minutes to brave walking inside. Instead of a normal bathroom, all there was covering most of the room... you guest it... a shallow pool.
“I don’t think they will respond to my singing,” Zoe said sadly.
“Emoc, Emoc,” Josh called out loudly.
Looking at each other, they nodded and walked into the water.
After trying for a very long time, they hadn’t caught a single one.
Zoe got out and Josh began to follow her then stopped, turned and walked back to where the faucet was. He turned off the water and pulled the plug causing the water to rush down a covered drain.
“Get a blanket,” He called out as he walked over to the edge an stepped onto the floor above.
When Zoe returned, they through it over the scampering Fro-Meleons who apparently weren’t able to change color so quickly after leaving the water.
“I counted six! Only four more to go!
They gathered them up and took them to the zoo keeper.
When it was time to go up to the attic, Zoe’s heart began to pound. She didn’t like attics at all. Scary place! Lots of junk! Very dusty!
When Josh opened the door, Zoe’s mouth fell open and her eyes opened really wide.
“A Doll House!” she exclaimed... That’s all there is in here... a really big life size “Doll House”!
“I guess so.”
The ceiling must have been at least ten feet high. The furniture was kid size and the kitchen and bathroom had running water.
Josh turned on the sink faucet in the kitchen and Zoe began to sing.
It didn’t take very long before there were three of them swimming around in the cool water which kept them from changing color so easily.
Using a large pot, they quickly gathered them up and took them to the zoo keeper.
“Only one more left,” he announced as the door closed.
“To the basement,” Josh said.
Zoe normally would have not wanted to go down there, but after the attic, she was curious as to what they would find.
However, when they got to the bottom of the stairs, it was just your typical “Man Cave” room with a big screen TV, pool table, large couch, kitchenette...
“tac! teg ti!” Zoe yelled.
It took Josh a few seconds to understand before he raced across the room, grabbed the cat, took it upstairs and put it in the cage.
In the meantime, Zoe brought up the last Fro-Meleon and was handing it to the zoo keeper.
“Great job,” Josh heard him say and then the door closed leaving them to stare at each other wondering what to do next.
“Time is running out!” the voice announced.
“Where’s the exit?” they said to each other.
Down the stairs and through the door,
the Chimp-Key is waiting for you.
Swing on the vines to make it across.
Don’t let the marshmallows hit you
or you will have to start all over again.
Hope you were good at dodge ball!
This story will continue next week!