THE ZILLIONAIRES XI

Keith was in his lab preparing to launch his Octaprowler

to Zaire. His hi-tech radars had detected a rich mineral supply of diamond rock there. It was in the deepest part of the humid jungle. Near it, there was also an unexplored part of the jungle that sheltered a 2,000 year old city. Keith named it the city of

Cringe.

Just then his brother Ryan walked in through the secret entrance. "What in the world are you doing, trying to launch that thing without me around? I want to see it."

"Chill." said Keith, "I’m not going to launch it until after dinner when it gets dark. I want everybody to see what I’m going to do."

"What are you going to do, fire it at the White House?"

"Hardly."

"Well then, what are you going to do?"

"You’ll see it tonight at 11 p.m."

"Come on. You can tell me. I won’t snitch to anybody, I promise."

"Nope, you’ll just have to wait and see it when everybody else does."

"I hate you."

"Thanks, Ryan. Coming from you, I take that as a compliment."

"Shut-up. And by the way, aren’t you going to go on a nice, long vacation? You told your wife that you would, and you told your kids."

"Thanks for reminding me of that. I would of forgotten all about it."

"Well," Keith said to his wife Allison at dinner, "I guess it’s time that we go on that vacation that I said we would go on."

"Finally!" Allison exclaimed. "I’ve waited for this for months."

"Your my wife and it’s my job to make you happy. We’ll go wherever you want to. I want you to be happy. You deserve it. And besides, you did save Ryan and I from certain death."

"You’re the best husband a woman could ever have!"

"Thanks. Oh yeah, I forgot, I’ve got to call Martine to see if she has anything for us to do."

"Keith, don’t."

"Why not? We might have to save the world again."

"Trust me. You won’t."

"Okay." Keith smiled. "And another thing, I’ve got a thing that I want to show you tonight. It’s at 11 p.m."

"You’re just full of surprises."

At 11 p.m., Keith got his and Ryan’s families together in his Space Observatory. He went down into the lab and fired off his rocket with the Octaprowler on it. Quickly, Keith raced up to the Observatory and pressed a red button on his remote control. The cone of the rocket blew up and fired a million giant fireworks into the air. The sky was lit up like a Christmas tree. There were red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple, and white fireworks.

"Wooooow!" was all that they could say.

The fireworks zoomed around on tiny rockets and did twirls and twisted. At about 11:15 p.m., the fireworks died down and fell to the ocean.

Everyone went inside.

The next day, Allison told Keith that she wanted to go to the resort. Keith agreed.

After loading up their plane, the whole family flew to the Island Resort Hotel. When they got there, Keith checked into it and got the two best rooms.

One had a king-size bed, a refrigerator, a dresser, a bathroom with the works, a giant T.V., a balcony, a closet and a DVD. It was for Keith and Allison.

The other had two Queen beds, and two of everything that was in Keith and Allison’s room. It was for Eric and Sarah.

They rested for a day and then they had dinner. Afterwards, Keith asked Allison if she wanted to go walking with him on the long nature trails. She said yes.

They walked for a few hours while the kids played at the Amusement Center. Keith had brought along his camcorder and was filming the wilderness. They wandered off of the trail and into the woods, finding their way with some trackers that Keith had made. While they walked, Keith saw a giant tree. It looked different from the rest, out of place. As he strode towards it, it seemed to shine. When he touched it, he and Allison fell into a hole. The ground had just given out under them. They screamed as they fell. The bottom was close to the surface, and soft, like freshly dug up dirt.

"Ouch."Keith said as Allison fell on top of him, "That hurt!"

"Sorry. What is this place, and do you have a flashlight or something?"

"Sure." Keith pulled out a lighter and turned it on. They were at the beginning of a tunnel, and Keith couldn’t see the end of it. The tunnel stretched for a long way ahead.

In the tunnel walls, there were holes. Each hole had an unlit torch on it. Keith lit one, handed it to his wife and got himself one.

They looked up at the hole. It was closed.

"Great." muttered Keith.

"Now what do we do?"

"The only thing we can do is venture farther into the tunnel and see if there is an exit."

While they walked, the tunnel began to slope downwards. After about a mile, the came to a big room. There were probably thousands of candles lining the walls. Keith lit one, and the rest of them began to light too. In just a few minutes, the entire room was lit up, including another passage way and the far end of the gym-sized room. The roof was high up, about a hundred feet.

The two people walked to the other passageway and went in. Behind them, in the large room, they heard a deep growl.

"W-what was t-t-that?" Allison trembled.

"I don’t k-know. But I d-do Know that w-we had better

g-get m-moving." Keith answered.

The ran down the hall and into another room with candles, like the first one. Keith again lit them. There was a big hole in the floor that dropped down about 500 feet into a swirling pool of green, murky, liquid and a doorway on the other side. There was a walkway around it, about 4 feet wide.

They started on it carefully, and none too soon. The thing that made the growls barged through the passageway and roared.

It was black with a gray beard. The thing stood about 13 feet tall, and was a monster. Red teeth jutted from the gums. They glistened in spit that dribbled down on to it’s beard. It was covered in thick, knotted hair that was obviously unwashed. The arms and legs were like tree trunks. 3 eyes were on it’s forehead, and there was no nose or ears.

Allison couldn’t contain herself. She screamed as the beast began to walk onto the side path after them. Keith and his wife ran in the other direction.

As they ran, Allison tripped and plunged off the edge! "Aaaahhhhhhhhh!" she screamed, just as Keith grabbed her arm.

He pulled her up just as the beast got to them. They ran hard and fast and made it to the other side.

Then the edge broke under the beast. It fell, but grabbed onto the side in time. It hung there, growling.

Keith watched, and went over to the monster. He raised up his boot, and brought it down hard onto it’s fingers. The monster let go, and screamed all the way down into the pool below. When it hit, fire appeared out of the liquid and engulfed the beast. The monster burned up. The skin peeled off and it’s guts boiled and fizzled out of the body. It’s eyes rolled up into the head and he spit out blood and intestines. All that was left was a grayish skeleton that sunk into the watery muck.

The doorway had candles in it and Keith lit them.

He pulled out three laser guns from his backpack. After giving Allison two, he told her to keep one ready and to put the other one in her pocket for a spare.

There were no creatures in the hallway and after about ten minutes, they came into anther room.

This time, Allison lit the candles and her mouth dropped open in shock. The entire room was filled with riches and gold and jewelry!

"Wooooooow!!!!!" Keith and Allison exclaimed at the same time.

Allison almost instantly ran over to the riches and plunged into them. There were more riches than she had ever seen.

"Let’s not get all excited about this." Keith said, "we still have to find a way out of here."

"Your right. Let’s find the exit, get some trucks, come back here, and load up this stuff."

"Good idea. Come on. Let’s find that exit!"

They searched the place top to bottom until Keith saw a symbol of the same tree that he had touched make them fall into that place on the far wall. He got his wife and placed his palm on the symbol with shaking hands.

All at once, they screamed, saw lights, fell, flew, and landed back at the tree were it all began.

"Wow!" Keith said, "What a rush!" He set up beeper signalers on all of the trees near the main tree.

Then he and Allison ran all the way back to the hotel. It was 2 in the morning. The slept in till lunch time and then they got up. Keith took a shower, got dressed, had lunch, and went over to his kids room. He knocked and Eric answered the door.

"Hey, dad. Where on earth were you last night? Me and Sarah were looking everywhere for you."

"Well son, that’s what I came to talk to you about. You probably won’t believe me, but, well, sit down first while I go get your mom. I’ll be right back." Keith got Allison and they went to their kids’ room. After they all had sat down, Keith told the story. He began with the part about taking a walk and ended it with coming back to the hotel at 2 in the morning.

"Your kidding." Sarah said.

"No, he telling the truth." Allison said.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Awesome."

"Can we go to that place?" Eric asked.

"That’s what we told you for." Keith answered, "we want you to go and we’ll also get uncle Ryan, aunt Andrea, and you cousins to go with us."

"Can I please go and get them? I know how to fly the

plane. This will be a responsibility test. Please?"

"On one condition."

"And that is?"

"I have to go along with you."

"Um, okay."

"Then let’s get movin’."

"All right!"

Keith and Eric got Ryan and his family and flew back. Eric didn’t make one mistake while he was flying.

The whole group of Carters went to the Car Rental 3000 shop and rented some large mind-controlled semis.

Keith got a black 20 wheeled semi truck and drove it with his wife Allison.

Ryan got a blue 20 wheeled semi truck and drove it with his wife Andrea.

Eric got a red 18 wheeled semi truck and drove it with his sister Sarah.

Ryan Jr. got a green 18 wheeled semi truck and drove it with his sister Lauren.

They drove to the tree and got out. After the male Carters stacked up crates by the tree, Eric touched the tree and they fell through.

"This is so cool." Ryan Jr. said.

They walked through the passageway and into the big room where the candles were still burning. The searched it, but they could not find out where the beast had been. In 15 minutes, they gave up and walked on. After a mile they came to the other big room with the giant hole in the floor.

To the Carters that hadn’t seen this before, it was so awesome to them. They couldn’t believe that this was just sitting here and that it was so big.

"When do you think that this thing was built?" Ryan asked, "And how? And why hasn’t it been discovered yet until now?"

"I don’t know." answered Keith, "it’s just one of life’s great mysteries."

Meanwhile, outside, Allison, Andrea, Lauren, and Sarah were all in the same truck talking. It was beginning to rain and it was getting dark fast. Quickly, they got out of the truck and went into the back of it. After pulling out the spotlights, they attached them to the generator and turned it on. The whole area was lit up.

"I hope they get back soon." Andrea said.

"Me too." said Allison.

"Me three." said Sarah.

"Me four." said Lauren.

They sat there in the truck, and waited.

In the secret underground chambers, the crates were being loaded up with the treasures.

After they were filled up to there maximum amount, they were placed by the symbol of the tree.

The Carters filled up their pockets and shirts and pants with treasures. Then they put as many of the necklaces and rings around their necks and fingers as possible. Ryan touched the tree and they were transported to the tree.

All of the Carters worked together and put the treasures in the trucks. This time, all of the zillionaires went into the secret tunnel.

They made their way through the passages and rooms.

The Carter clan carried some more crates that they had brought to the treasure room and filled them up with the treasure.

They touched the symbol and appeared back at the tree again.

Once again, they loaded up the trucks, this time while it rained.

They went back down and got the last of the treasures.

With the trucks loaded and ready to go, they drove to the hotel and went to bed. The next day the Carters drove the trucks home and loaded the treasure into the giant vaults.

They went back to the hotel and dropped off the women and girls.

They guys drove the trucks to the rental shop and paid for the trucks. Then they hired a limo to take them back to the hotel.

At the hotel, they all went swimming in the giant pool and had a great time.

Afterwards, Keith asked them if they all wanted to go and get some ice cream.

"I do." said Allison.

"Me two." said Eric.

"Me three." said Sarah.

"Me four." said Andrea.

"Me five." said Ryan Jr..

"Me six." said Lauren.

"Me seven." said Ryan.

"Great!" said Keith.

They went to the ice cream shop and ate lots of ice cream to celebrate. After that, they had dinner. Nobody ate a whole because they were full.

"Well," Keith said, "I guess eating the ice cream first wasn’t such a great idea."

They all started to laugh.