Danger Guys and the Golden Lizard (5 page)

EIGHT

“Zeekie!” I screamed as I fell through the stone jaws.

I smushed my nose. Again.

Zeek tumbled into me, and we rolled fast down a dark stone hallway into an open courtyard. Broken columns and crumbled archways stood all around. Every stone was carved with a lizard shape on it.

“Boys!” Mrs. Emerson yelled. “Are you all right?”

I stood up and brushed myself off. “Yeah, we're okay. I think.” Zeek nodded.

“The entrance is shut tight,” Mr. E. called out. “We're going to search for another way in.”

“We'll explore a little,” Zeek called back. We could hear the Emersons tracking away on the other side of the wall.

I looked around. The light flickering through the trees on this side of the wall was different somehow. Brighter. Sunlight danced on the stones.

“Noodle?” whispered Zeek. “Do you get the feeling that…”

“We've just entered another world?” I said.

“Yeah, the land that time forgot!”

I ran my hands over the wall carvings. “There are lizards carved everywhere.”

Fat toucans with bright yellow beaks fluttered through the old archways. Their cries echoed among the stones.

Shadows moved here and there over the markings on the ancient walls.

The lizard carvings led to a narrow alley between two rows of big wild plants. Arrow-shaped stones between the plants pointed up ahead to a clearing.

“Looks like we're supposed to go this way.”

“Careful,” whispered Zeek, grabbing my arm. “I read a book once where these two buddies discovered an ancient temple that was booby-trapped and—”

“Zeek, this is no book. This is real life!”

I stepped on one of the arrow stones, accidentally brushing against one of the leafy green plants.

Suddenly the leaves parted, and I could see a pair of little green jaws opening and closing.

I stopped. “Um … Zeek?”

An instant later—
SNAP!
—the jaws jumped out at me and took a bite out of my shirtsleeve.

“Whoa!” I stared at the jaws. I stared at my shirt. It finally came to me. “Flytraps!”

SNAP! SNAP! SNAP!
An instant later, hundreds of tiny jaws leaped out of the plants and lunged for Zeek and me.

“
Guytraps
, you mean!” he yelled. “With an appetite! Run!”

But the plants were too quick for us. They blocked our way, forcing us to make a stand.

“Hey!” yelled Zeek, fighting back. “I eat vegetables—they don't eat me!”

SNAP! SNAP!
They lunged closer, biting at our sneakers. “Maybe it's revenge?” I yelped.

“Whatever!”

In a flash I unbuckled my supply belt and began whipping it at the snarling plants. “Bad broccoli! Back! Back!” I cried.

For an instant, the plants curled away. It gave us the chance we needed. I grabbed Zeek and charged ahead past the wild flowery jaws.

WHACK! WHACK!
I swatted and leaped.

“Take that!” I cried.

Finally, we were out the other side.

Zeek looked back into the alley of hungry plants and wiped his forehead. “Kind of gives new meaning to the phrase ‘Plant Food.'”

I held up my torn shirtsleeve. “No table manners at all.” We backed away from the plants.

GRRRR!
A strange sound echoed around us.

I turned to Zeek. “Did you hear that?”

GRRRR!

“You mean
that
?” He shivered. “That noise?”

“Yeah.” The sound faded away.

He shook his head. “Maybe it was nothing.”

I nodded. “Probably nothing.” We stepped into the clearing. On the far side was a high stone wall, and straight ahead, a doorway. “The Golden Lizard must be this way! It looks easy.”

Zeek came up behind me and glanced over my shoulder. “Except for that,” he said, pointing.

“Oh, that,” I said with a smile. He was looking at an ancient stone bridge over a stone pit. We had to cross it to get to the doorway.

“No way,” said Zeek. “Pits are where I really draw the line. I don't go over old bridges that are booby-trapped to fall into old pits.” He started back toward the killer vegetables.

I grabbed his arm. “Hey, pal, that bridge has been here forever and will be here forever. Besides, big deal, there's a little pit down there. I mean, what could happen?”

What could happen?
Did I really say that?

I started across.

“I can't believe I'm following you, Noodle. This is sure to end up bad. We're not just going to walk over this bridge. Oh, no. We'll fall. And I know there's something waiting below!”

“Don't worry,” I said, shooting a look down. It was shiny. “Just a little water in a little pit.”

But Zeek is usually right about things like this.

GRRRR!

He was right this time, too.

NINE

At the exact moment I heard that
GRRRR!,
the stone bridge, the one that had been there forever and would probably be there forever, tipped forward into the water, and we tumbled off.

Splash!
The second we hit the water, the bridge went back to being a bridge again.

Ah! The old booby-trapped bridge trick!

Then I heard something sloshing around at the other end of the pit. The old killer animals in the pit trick?

CHOMP! CHOMP!

“Zeek,” I said. “We're not alone here.”

Some bumpy things flashed across the water.

Zeek stared. “Maybe they're friendly?”

CHOMP! CHOMP!

“Or maybe not!”

Two long alligators sloshed toward us. Their jaws opened and shut with a loud snap, practicing for when they ate Zeek and me.

“What's with everything trying to eat us?” I cried.

“We're tasty?”

I was about to say my last good-bye to Zeek when—

FWING! FWING!
Two vines suddenly appeared dangling above us.

“Who? How? What?” Zeek sputtered.

I looked up into the trees and saw some little, furry brown monkeys swinging away. “Hey, that's two we owe you!” I yelled.

An instant later, Zeek and I were climbing up the vines, hand over hand. We swung over and jumped down to dry land. The alligators snapped at the open air for a while before going back to their corner of the pit. No lunch for them.

“Whew! Somebody sure doesn't want us to find the Lizard,” said Zeek. “What next?”

I scanned the trail behind us. We'd survived man-eating plants and man-eating animals. Going back didn't look too appealing.

We stepped up to the doorway in the wall. “There's only one way to go.”

Slowly I peeked into the opening. More high stone walls stood in every direction. Each had an opening. Through the opening I could see more walls and more openings. Sunlight flickered down on the walls.

It came to me in a flash. “It's a maze, Zeek! This is a test! In fact, everything so far has been a test. To see if we can make it!”

“I like Mr. Strunk's tests better.”

“Oh, I can feel it,” I said. “This is it. The final challenge!”

“You mean, the one that's going to kill us?”

I made a face and stepped carefully into the maze. I walked from one little room to another, trying to figure out how it worked. It reminded me of something. I wasn't sure what.

“Don't worry, pal,” I said, “we're close to the Golden Lizard now. We're so close, I can taste it. Which reminds me. Do we, like, have any snacks? I'm hungry.”

Zeek didn't answer. I turned. No Zeek.

“Zeekie!” I yelled.

“I'm over here!” came his voice from somewhere far away.

“Where are you?”

“I don't know. I'm getting lost.”

My heart raced. What if there was something deadly in the maze? What if Zeek got lost and never made it out? What if I got lost? What if—

Then, it hit me.
Food!
I couldn't stop thinking about food as I walked.

One particular kind of food. Waffles.

I stepped from one little square room to another. Waffles. Waffles. Waffles.

All of a sudden, it came to me. Yes! The maze! It was laid out like the little squares on a waffle!

In an instant I knew which way I had to go. I knew it like I knew my own name!

It was a huge maze and pretty tricky, but once I figured it out, I was through to the other side in twenty minutes flat.

Bright sunlight flickered down through the trees. I stepped out into a beautiful garden.

“Zeek!” I yelled “It's easy! All you do—”

And there was Zeek, coming out of the maze, smiling. “Pretty crazy, huh?”

“Yeah,” I said. “When I figured out the maze was a waffle, I tried running through like I pour the syrup. In a big
N
shape.
N
for Noodle. And it worked!”

“I did a different letter,” he said. “
Z
for Zeek.”

I thought about that. “Hey,
N
and
Z
are the same shape!”

“Yeah, it all depends on how you look at it.” We laughed. Then Zeek stared past me into the garden. I turned. I saw them.

Heads.

Huge heads.

Six-foot-tall heads.

With purple eyes the size of basketballs.

And slithery red tongues sticking out from mouths with long teeth in them.

Big painted lizard heads. They were hideous. They were moving toward us. Closer. Closer!

“Stay cool,” Zeek whispered, backing up.

Sweat ran down my neck. “I wish!”

Suddenly, the painted heads tumbled to the ground. And in their place were—kids! Dozens of kids.

Some were our age, some older and some younger. They all had big wildflowers in their hair, and they were jumping up and down and laughing. It was cool!

A girl stepped forward. “Welcome to the Kingdom of the Golden Lizard. My name is Kalla.”

“Terrific,” I said. “You speak English. I'm Noodle and this is my friend Zeek.”

“I'm Bota,” said a boy. “You must be very brave and clever to have come this far. No one knows about our secret kingdom.”

I shot a look at Zeek. “Sorry,” I said, “but it's not a secret anymore. Some very bad guys are coming to steal the Golden Lizard. I think we'd better talk to your king and queen so that—”

Bota started laughing. Kalla did, too. “King and queen? You've already met us!”

I made a face. “You?”

“All of us,” said Bota. “In our kingdom, all the children rule.”

“As for the Golden Lizard,” Kalla said, “well, it would be difficult to steal.”

Suddenly—
RRRRRRR!
The ground began to shake.

“Earthquake!” I screamed.

I ducked. Zeek dived.

The children laughed and pointed behind us. We turned to look.

“Whoa!” cried Zeek. “The Golden Lizard!”

“Holy cow!” I gasped. “It's so—so—big!”

It
was
the Golden Lizard. And it
was
big.

Cut into the side of a large hill, hidden under a thick canopy of trees, was the shape of a giant lizard.

And the whole thing was made of gold.

“We like it because it's shiny,” Bota said. “You see why we keep it a secret.”

Sure, the gold.

But the best part was what happened next.

RRRRRR!
The ground shook again.

The rumbling got louder and louder and louder, until—
KA-FLOOOOOOM!
A huge spray of water burst from the ground right at the top of the hill, at the very tip of the Lizard's tail.

Wave after wave of water shot up like a fountain and then rushed down the tail, through the body, and into the head of the Golden Lizard, which made a giant swirling pool at the bottom.

“Every ten minutes, the water comes,” said Bota.

I checked my watch.

“Like magic,” said Kalla.

I couldn't believe it. “Zeek, you know what the Golden Lizard is?”

“Of course.” He nodded slowly. “Every kid knows. It's a giant, megasize, overlong, extraterrific, superfun
WATER SLIDE
!”

Some of the kids ran up and jumped on the top of the Lizard's tail.
SPLOOOSH!
—they shot down the slide, laughing the whole way.

“I'm next!” I yelled.

Suddenly, I froze.

WOCKA-WOCKA-WOCKA!

“Choppers!” cried Zeek. “Closing in fast!”