LAND OF THE GIANTS---<br> 
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prologue<br> 
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Mark Wilson, Valerie Ames Scott, Commander Alexander Fitzhugh, and fourteen year old Barry Lockridge walked up a hilly mountain of brush and trees. They were actually on a small hill but being four of the seven Earthlings trapped in the land of the giants, it was quite a climb for them. A metal wire fence blocked their way but it had long since been cut open by teenagers trying to find a quick way around. Fitzhugh puffed, "You'd think we'd find some scrap metal near this rail track." <P>
Val gave a false hope, "Maybe on the other side."<P> 
Mark asks, "What's on the other side, anyone know?" <P>
"A junior high school, I think," Barry said. <P>
"Okay, we cross," Mark commanded, "But all of you keep sharp. If a train comes, we have to see it." <P>
"I never could understand how someone could get hit by a train," Val submitted. <P>
"Accidents do happen," Barry told her.<br> 
"So do suicides," she said. <P>
"We'll debate on it later," Mark pulled Val's arm, "Come on." They climbed up past huge, black cinder blocks, coming onto black dirt which was more flat and supportive of their balance. Seeing the metal rail, Mark ordered, "Step over it." He put his foot over the rail, "All clear. Let's get across while it is." The others follow. "Hurry up now." <P>
Suddenly a train whistle blew, off in the distance.<br> 
Val looked up, "Train! Run for it!" <P>
Val, Barry, and Mark ran across a huge space between rails. Fitzhugh stepped over the first side but his foot lodged into a tiny hole just under the track! The other three ran ahead of him but were stopped by his call. "Help! I'm stuck!" Val and Barry ran back to Fitzhugh at the first rail. "My foot is jammed here! It's between the rail and the ground!" <P>
Mark looked up to scope out how far the train was. A raging hulk of steel monster which rumbled toward them. He ran up to them, "Let's go!" Mark ran to them and tugged on Fitzhugh's foot. Val and Barry pulled his leg. <P>
"Get me out!" <P>
Val gasps, "Well try Fitzhugh, try!"<P> 
"I am trying!" Fitzhugh looked up at the train for the first time. 
Barry twists Fitzhugh's leg, "Turn your foot!"<P> 
"I can't! It's too tight!" <P>
Mark continued to pull, "Can you get your foot out of the boot?" <P>
"NO! Do something, it's closer!" <P>
"Pull!" Mark grabbed a rock and tried banging the rail upward. "I'm going to try to loosen this. If you can, pull your foot downward, not up!" Mark began hammering. <P>
Val watched the train, "Hurry! It's almost on us!" Mark pulled the rail up some, "Now try!" <P>
Fitzhugh moved his foot a bit, "It's not enough!"<P> 
As they were doing this, Barry eyed something on the other side of the track. He ran to it. Val yelled to him, "Barry!"<P> 
"Never mind him," Fitzhugh panicked, "Get me out!" <P>
The rumbling increased but as it did, Barry found a large stick shift, "Mark!" The tracks before them began to shift as Barry pushed the handle with all his might. Barry saw the rushing train tower above them and it was very close. As it whisked by, the boy jumped backward. While Mark pulled up on the rail just above Fitzhugh's foot, Val pulled Fitzhugh's leg. The train was thirty seconds away from them when Fitzhugh's foot was finally free. Mark saw it coming at them fast, however, he pulled both Val and Fitzhugh with him and they all fell down a grassy hill on the side they had climbed up on. They tumbled over each other as the train chugged past, humble and unaware. The sound hurt their ears as they rolled. <P>
Barry, on the school's side, also fell in a rolling fashion--only his drop was somewhat straighter. He landed onto a thick piece of tin foil and hit his head. He was unconscious on the discarded wrapper from some giant kid's lunch, while the sun beat down. The foil slowly became steamy from the rays and Barry soon tanned. The sun continued and the made the foil crackle and smoke! Barry, unable to move, would be cooked!<br> 
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LAND OF THE GIANTS<br> 
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The Danger of School<br> 
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by charles mento<br> 
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PART ONE<br> 
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The foil began to burn where the boy was sprawled out. Valerie, Fitzhugh, and Mark rose up from cinder dirt and mashed leaves. Mark said to both, "You're all right." They wiped themselves off. 
Val looked up at the top of the tracks, "Barry...where..oh no!" 
A cloud blocked out the sun's rays and the tin foil began to cool a little while Barry lay still. Mark reached the top first and looked around the railroad. Val and Fitzhugh came up behind him. Fitzhugh began to ask, "Any signs of..?" <P>
Mark moved his hand at them, "You stay back there." Hopping over the rail, he looked at the lever which Barry had pushed.<P> 
"What is it?" Fitzhugh asked, leaning on his hands on his knees momentarily, in a rest from the long climb. <P>
"He was trying to push this lever." <P>
Valerie and Fitzhugh joined Mark. Fitzhugh shrugged, "What for?"<P> 
"Trying to make the train change tracks. See, over there..." <P>
Valerie shut her eyes, "Oh, poor Barry..." <P>
Fitzhugh gulped, "Then he was trying to..." <P>
"Save you," Mark put a hand to his own brow, "And there's no...no sign of him here." <P>
Fitzhugh swallowed, "And you think he's..."<P> 
Val, sad, sat down on the rail, "He must have died instantly."<P> 
Fitzhugh ran down the other side of the hill toward the school side, "No! No! I won't accept that! He's not dead! Barry!" <P>
Mark looked around for any giants. None. He took Val's arm, "We better get away from here." <P>
They walk down the hill carefully where they find Fitzhugh looking around, "Barry! Barry, where are you? Barry!!!"<P> 
Beyond the grass, Val saw movement. "Mark, the school. The kids are coming out for lunch or something. We'd better hide."<P> 
Fitzhugh felt sick. "Barry...Barrrr..." <P>
The clouds passed and the sun resumed its shine on Barry and the tin foil. Smoke started to rise up. The foil began to heat all over again. <P>
Fitzhugh began to hit grass aside with his foot and his hands, any stalks that were too high were fair game for him. He became panic stricken. <P>
Val saw a group of boys coming toward the area, "Oh Mark, get him will you?" <P>
Mark put a hand on her shoulder, "Yes, sure. You okay?"<P> 
She nodded as bravely as she could and nodded for him to fetch Fitzhugh. Mark ran to the heavy set man, "Fitz...Alex...please stop." <P>
"No! Never! We've got to find...something. Look!"<P> 
Barry rolled off the tin foil, groaning in his half conscious state. The foil crackled and then caught fire. The giant boys saw it and ran over to it. Val counted four of them. Three of them spotted the little people. Mark pulled Fitzhugh, "RUN!" <P>
As he was pulled by Mark's hand, Fitzhugh gasped, "Barry! I saw him! He's alive!" <P>
The fourth boy stamped out the fire, nearly hitting Barry by mistake. After he finished, he stared at the foil and it was then he saw the tiny Earth boy. He scooped Barry up and put him in a lunch box. Val, Mark, and Fitzhugh vanished into a tree hole. The three boys looked around in the high grass. "I thought I saw...did you?"<P> 
"No way." <P>
They walked off. Mark looked out of the hole in the tree trunk. Mark saw a giant boy with a crewcut who was looking into his lunch box. The giant boy moved off. "Okay, they're moving off." He signals to the other two, "Let's get Barry." Carefully stepping out, he lead them to where the tin foil, now black, was. It was still smoking.<P> "Gone." <P>
Val nodded, "Are you sure it was Barry?"<P> 
"I saw it too, Val," Mark confirmed, "That blonde boy. He must have put the fire out and...and saw Barry." <P>
Val broke the extended silence after that. "Well, what are we going to do?" <P>
"Call the others and search every foot of that high school."<P> 
"High school?" Fitzhugh asked. <P>
"Yes, Barry was wrong--those boys were too old to be in junior high. We've got to find him," Mark opened his walkie-talkie radio. "Come in, Spindrift." <P>
Later, Steve Burton, Dan Erickson, and Betty Hamilton, the Spindrift ship's crew, met them at the tree hole. Dan scolded, "You shouldn't have come this far."<P> 
"Never mind," waved Steve, "What did this boy who took Barry look like?" <P>
Mark frowned, "Well he was tall...no, no, I didn't mean that. He had a slight build, blonde hair, and a light complexion. For a giant and for a teenager, he was somewhat tall."<P> 
Betty asked, "What was he wearing?" 
"One of those rock band shirts, you know like back on Earth--the Rolling Stones and such." 
"Yes," Betty rolled her eyes in disrespect to such bands, "Color?" 
"Black with an orange design and blue dungarees. Judging by that recess, I'd say we have about forty five minutes to the next bell between classes. We have to find that kid before the last period," Mark told them. 
"If not, Barry is lost," Val said, "With no radio." 
Dan stood straighter, "Let's start then." 
Steve stood from his crouched position, "Yeah. Val, you come with me. The rest of you find a way in. We'll look around the outside in case he has a free period or is cutting class." 
"Good idea," Dan nodded, "See ya." 
Dan lead Mark, Fitzhugh, and Betty toward a brick wall, running across a huge parking lot where the only things were giant parked cars. At the brick wall, they leaned against it for support and cover. Fitzhugh puffed, "I don't understand Steve...abandoning us." 
"Fitz, he and Valerie have the dangerous part," Dan fidgeted, trying to be patient with the man. He pointed, "There's an air pipe." 
"Good," Fitzhugh said, "Let's get in. Right now there's no sign of giant activity anywhere." 
The four inch over to the pipe. Dan pulled at a covering that was over it. "Help me get this off." They all pulled it off as fast as possible, spurred on by adrenalin. "There, that ought to do it." 
Betty gasped, "Dan!" A huge red mass screeched into the parking lot, smelling of burnt rubber. "A race car!" 
"Inside!" Dan pulled her arm, "The rest of you, move it!" 
The car was jacked up and it sped around toward their area, past parked autos and came along the wall. It zipped straight up to the vent and turned. As they ran inside the pipe, dirt flew up at them! Inside, they watched as the car wheels backed up away from an adjacent brick wall and pulled away. The noise filled the pipe, making it impossible to talk. Once the silence returned, Dan said, "That's that." 
As they turned and went into the pipe, darkness filled Fitzhugh with terror, "Where does this thing lead?" 
"We'll know soon enough," Mark pointed, "Look." He saw two ways to go, two pipes springing from the one they were in. "Which way now?" 
Betty shook her head toward one, "Why don't we try that way?" 
"Sounds good to me," Mark shrugged. 
Fitzhugh gulped, "I don't like this. I don't like it at all." 
Dan frowned, "You've been in drains before." 
"I know but I have a feeling of...dread..." 
Betty lightly mocked, "Oh Fitzhugh..." 
They started down one way but two beady, red eyes glow out at them from the dark in it. A horrible growl came from the new piping. Both Betty and Fitzhugh screamed as something crawled at them from the new drain--a gigantic rat! 
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PART TWO<br> 
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"You see, I was right!" Fitzhugh gasped. The hairy rodent towered over them. They remained very still. The fat, furry body moved swiftly as it charged. The four turned and ran down the second new opening. Fitzhugh lagged behind the other three, "Wait for me!" The rat came at him. It was then he remembered his flashlight that Dan gave him. He turned and shone it into the rat's eyes. It stopped, hissing. Fitzhugh kept it on the thing as he ran through a very dirty vent. He slipped on excess water and fell. "Ohhhhohhhohhh!" He slid out of a square shaped duct and into a room, onto his butt. It was a wooden floor. Dan, Betty, and Mark look down at him. 
Betty pulled him up, "Shh, quiet, Fitzhugh." 
"Okay begin," said a skinny, bearded giant band teacher. A band, made up of teenagers, began to play a classical piece. 
Fitzhugh found himself caught up in it. He closed his eyes. "Ahhh." 
Dan said, "Good. They won't hear us. Let's go." 
"What?" Fitzhugh looked at him. 
Dan pulled the man. Betty and Mark followed them around a gray stone wall and out an open wooden door, the door, thick as can be. In a wide hallway, Dan said, "We're going to have to watch out for teachers on hall duty." 
"Dan, if we could find one of those shop classes we may..." Mark stopped. He was thinking of getting parts for their spaceship which still needed repairing. "No, Barry comes first." 
Dan nodded, ignoring his first thought, "If only we had a plan of the school. You know like the main office would hand out." 
Mark looked down the huge hall which seemed to extend into infinity, "Only which way is the main office?" 
"Mark, Betty, go down that hall. Fitzhugh, you come with me on the turn," Dan checked his wrist watch, "The classes might change soon." 
Betty and Mark go down the hall while Fitzhugh and Dan, carefully followed the wall, and turned around a tiled wall into a new corridor. Betty and Mark stopped at a classroom door, miles high. Mark looked at it, "Can we fit under?" 
"Sure," Betty dropped to her knees, "See." She looked into the room. 
Mark watched the hall as she checked. "Anything?" "No, let's try the next one," Betty rejoined Mark and they ran across the wide hall to the frame of the next door. Looking under they saw a huge class of students being taught by a middle aged giant woman. Some students were asleep and some were near sleep. 
"I don't see anyone that looks like that boy," Mark whispered, "Let's go." 
Elsewhere, Dan closed his radio, "No go from Steve yet. Let's keep moving." He and Fitzhugh walked down a hall that was tiled on each side. They turned a corner and stopped, looking overhead. A young woman giant stood with her back slouched against a wall, reading a book in her hands. Dan whispered, "She's on hall duty." 
Fitzhugh says, "We'll never get past." 
Suddenly, the giant walked toward them, not taking her eyes off the book. The two turn to run but a giant boy with a cowboy hat on and a blonde girl in a mid-drift approached. 
"Do you two have a pass?" 
"I do," the girl said, opening her pocketbook, "Let me find it...." 
"Now," Dan ran from the corner. 
"Now?" Fitzhugh shrugged, did a double take and followed, "Now!" He ran past the sneakers of the two students. He joined Dan at an adjacent corner and the two hide at a wooden bathroom door. 
"Your teacher's name better be on it, too." 
"It is," droned the boy, removing his sunglasses. 
Dan looked back, "The coast is clear. Come on!" 
Fitzhugh nodded, "Wait! Someone's coming out of the bathroom!" They dash to the back of the wall as the door swung open toward them, threatening to crush them! They back up against the wall as much as possible, the tiles behind their backs. Fitzhugh blinks nervously as the door comes at them. He closes his eyes as it bangs. A wall bumper with just enough room to allow Dan and Fitzhugh room, stopped the door. A giant boy, relieved, struts out, adjusts his pants, and moves off. 
Dan puffed, "The guy that designed this place ought to be shot." 
Fitzhugh peered out, "It's clear again." They dashed out, down a new hall and past an exit door. "Dan, look!" He pointed to a large sectioned off, glass windowed office, "That must be the main office." 
"Could be. Let's take a look," Dan instructed. He ran out, across an intersection and stopped at a beige wall. 
Fitzhugh followed again and started to say something, "I..." when a giant woman, this one much older, exited the office. He and Dan leaned on the wall as she stopped. She ripped out papers from a notebook and flung them to the floor nearby. 
"Useless trash, bah!" She moved on, her high heels clicking away. 
Dan shrugged, "A secretary maybe." 
Fitzhugh chanced looking at the papers, "Dan, the jackpot! A diagram of the school like you asked for, remember?" 
Dan smiled as he read it, "Yeah." 
Fitzhugh's gaze wandered off with the giant lady, "A lady who works here so long, as that one obviously has, wouldn't need it." "Yeah, right. I'll try to memorize it. Keep a look out." 
Nervously, Fitzhugh looked about, "Don't take too long." 
Searching some more, Betty and Mark ran from a classroom door to under a heater. Mark puffed, "No luck thus far but we've got to keep looking." 
"That looks like an intersection to some ore halls," Betty burst out. 
Mark looked at her, smiling, "Got your breath?" 
"Huh-uh," Betty swallowed, "And ready..." 
"C'mon then," he took her hand and they ran. 
They ran under the heater but they didn't get very far. Betty saw two black shoes stomp in front of them as they were about to run from under the heater's cover. "Oh, Mark!" They back up against the wall under the heater. 
A teacher with a large partially bald head marched the hallway. Following against the wall, the two slipped past the heels of the nosey looking man, who surveyed the opposite hallway. Passing him, they scurried over to a class door. 
Mark opens a mail slot on the older style door and looked in, "No good. I think we'd have better luck if we split up." 
"No Mark. One of us captured is enough," Betty warned, "We have to stick together." 
"Have it your way," he said and pointed, "Try that one." They fled to another door and slipped under. 
A very tall, lanky woman stood from a desk cluttered with objects. In a screeching voice she said, "This next poem is by a very, very famous writer. Called..." 
Near the door in a student desk-seat, a girl cried, "Mrs. Osem, look! By the door!" 
Mark called, "Let's get out!" 
A chorus of, "little people," filled the room. 
Osem took her pointer off the black board and slapped it down at Mark and Betty! They moved toward the door and it missed. They slid under it but the pointer followed. It moved back and forth. Betty gasped but Mark pulled her toward a vent. 
As Osem furiously attacked the under door, she never thought to open the door. Her bending down made her skirt go up and her class became alive with laughter at the sight of her underwear from behind. "All right, class, calm down. It was only a mouse." 
"Not from where I'm sitting," one boy called out. 
Osem opened the door and looked out. At a vent, Betty and Mark watched her. She scanned the hall. Mark whispered, "Don't move." 
After what seemed hours, Osem finally retreated back into her classroom. Betty released a long breath, "You think she'll report us?" 
"I don't know. I do know she got a better look at us than to think we were mice." 
Outside, Steve and Valerie ran through a bed of plants and flowers to stop at a wooden enclosure, opened at one side. Val whispered, "This is the commons area, I guess." They crouched down. 
"Yes. Look." Steve pointed up to a large group of young girls and boys smoking rolled up cigarettes. "Apparently the giants have a drug problem, too." 
"Which I bet they blame us for." Val looked outward. 
"Why so pessimistic?" 
"They blame us for everything else," Val stared into his eyes, "...from pollution to riots to gas pains." 
Steve shot her a look. "They're busy so let's be too and try for the vent Dan told us about." 
"What about the rats," Val inquired, then became humor-filled, "Not them," she nodded at the giant smokers, "...the real ones." 
Before Steve could answer, a black Special Investigations Department car pulled up and a familiar figure shot out of it, flanked by four men. A man in a tie and suit came out of the school to help the newcomers round up the juvenile smokers. Another giant came out of a blue SID car. Val and Steve could hear the teens spout a chant of, "Filthy pigs!!!" 
Val squinted and guessed even before she saw him, "Not Kobick...!" 
"Him again," Steve puffed, "All we need." 
Val stretched her body up so she could see better. "And that other one...looks like Lt. Greyson." 
"Keep down!" Steve poked her head down. 
The SID men tossed a number of the students into the cars as another one arrived. The man in the suit told them, "Yes, I'm the Principal here. My name's Henn. You handled this one well. No siren, no alarms, no gunshots..." 
Kobick frowned, not appreciating the sarcasm, "Very funny, Mister Principal. I'm well aware of your concern over the publicity but I did it so as not to scare these..." he groped for a word, "...kids." 
Henn asked, "What will happen to them?" 
Greyson came closer to him, "Well, Mr. Henn, you know that as well as I do. Jail for awhile, programs, rehab, the usual and then...back out here to start all over..." Greyson was more humane in approach than Kobick and his monotone voice put people at ease unlike Kobick's continually threatening, loud manner. 
"We want the pusher," Kobick waved a fist, "The one or ones behind it all. Perhaps, the little people..." 
"I told you so," Val mocked. 
"I did hope you'd resist saying that," Steve whispered without looking at her. 
Henn laughed, "Little people..you can't be serious...you don't think..." 
"The drug incidents do correspond to their sightings," Kobick intoned. 
Greyson offset him, "However, we do not have definite proof." 
"Are you done here?" 
Kobick smiled, "For now we are." 
"Eager to be rid of us?" Greyson asked. 
"In all honesty, yes." 
"We'd better wait here for a awhile," Steve ordered. Val frowned but sat cross legged near some plants. She figured she could use the rest. 
Dan and Fitzhugh could have used a rest, too but that was what they were hardly going to get. They crawled under to a door and under a slant vent that was in it. They looked up at a large stairway section which went up and split to two stairs and ended above into two halls. Dan nodded, "We haven't thought of something. Suppose he went upstairs?" 
"You don't mean you intend to..." 
"Come on." 
"Up there?" Fitzhugh's eyes wandered upward, wondering if he could. 
"Yes, where else? Besides..." Dan patted his friend's stomach, "...you could use the exercise..." He ran to a step and reached up. He climbed up and turned to see Fitzhugh gallantly trying to follow him. He helped pull him over the edge. Dan puffed and stood up, "Look, there's quite a few more, Fitz, maybe you should..." 
"No," Fitzhugh waved, "For Barry, I can make them." 
"Well, okay, if you're sure," Dan said and then started up. After getting up it, he reached out and pulled Fitzhugh's arms up--with Fitzhugh attached. "Good." 
In the hallway they were in, Mark and Betty checked the last classroom. A giant boy with a hall pass stomped by them at the door. Mark pointed quickly, "We'll run across that field to the other side of the school. There's a wall there connected to the main area. It's clear. Now!" They ran out over a flat, open cement walk which was good for running. At a curb, Mark yelled, "Jump!" They hopped off it and ran across a field to a small tree to them which was really just a small sprout to Giants. "Let's catch our breath." 
"Don't you mean so I can...can...catch mine..." she said and then saw his look of protest, "Tactfully put by you of course..." Mark smiled at her comment. She was always so honest and straight forward. A screech of tires made them look skyward to see a hot-red colored sports car skid around the front of the school's main drive through entrance. Betty puffed and finally caught her breath, "These kids sure get away with a lot." 
"As did the kids in the 60's, the 70's and the 80's back home on Earth." 
"Yes, and probably will do so in the 90's." 
"Hopefully we can find that out first hand since we don't plan to be on this planet for that decade." 
"Oh," Betty smiled, "Only this decade?" 
Dan and Fitzhugh reached the first platform. Fitzhugh didn't look up anymore, "Are we on the second floor?" 
"No, Fitzhugh," Dan calmed him, "We still have to go up that way." He showed him the steps split off and they would go up one of the sides to the second floor. 
"Oooooohhhh." 
"Come on, hop to it," Dan happily encouraged him and patted his arm, "Give it your spunk!" 
Suddenly without warning, the bells rang. Fitzhugh yelled, "Forty five minutes! They're over!" 
Dan looked around for some cover, "We'll never reach the top before they get here!" He peered up to the sound of giants coming from all directions. He ran to the first step going up from the platform level. "Here!" 
"We'll be crushed!" 
"No, Fitzhugh, lie down!" Dan pulled him down. They laid down against the wall of the step. "Stay put!" 
"But..." 
"Shut up!" Dan flattened himself against the step wall and found that the top of the step had its own platform which stuck out slightly. It could give them some cover. They heard the steps of the giants walking up the stairs! Dan winced as huge feet trumped by. Fitzhugh saw huge feet coming down, stepping from above. A forest of legs paraded all around them. They saw boots, sneakers, sandals, high heeled shoes, slip on shoes, and more variety than they cared to remember. Dan had his head near Fitzhugh's as they faced each other, lying opposite, head to head. "It should be over soon." He saw Fitzhugh tighten his lips to not say a word. Fitzhugh closed his eyes. Dan wanted to do the same but he was too scared to. 
Outside, Betty and Mark stayed down as the teens passed. Betty looked to Mark, both among giant leaves near the tree. 
A few stragglers passed Fitzhugh and Dan. Just as they suspected the last giant had bounced past, down or up, another would appear from above or below and cause them to lose their Adam's apple in their throats all over again. Dan looked out after the bell rang again but had to duck back down to avoid the high heel of a giant girl. 
Mark, outside, looked at his watch, "It's over. The bell should have rang by now." 
"Let's get out of here then." 
"No, wait. Give it a minute." 
At the steps, Dan pulled Fitzhugh's sleeve and the man came up, "Now!" 
"Again with the now!" Fitzhugh joked but he appreciated Dan's warnings and that the man wouldn't just leave him in these very dire circumstances. They race to the step top and then began to climb upward. 
Betty and Mark ran to another curb outside and jumped up, Mark helping Betty. A monster automobile came skidding past them, making them move faster. They raced to an entrance to a new hall. 
In some classroom, the blonde boy who took Barry, sat. He was not listening to his teacher go on and on about politics and rule by the few. The boy peered into his loose leaf and saw Barry lying in the binder. "You--Philip--why aren't you paying attention?" The gray haired teacher came up to his desk, "What have you in there?" 
All eyes were on the book. "Nothing." 
"You haven't been listening since you walked in here. What're you hiding?" 
"I don't know what you're talking about." 
The man smiled grimly. "Very well. I'll see for myself!" He opened the loose leaf quickly but only saw blank papers. "I...uhh...I could've sworn I saw...sorry Philip." 
Phil gulped. Why push him today? "It's okay, Mr. Jerad." 
The teacher turned and walked up to the blackboard. As everyone settled down from laughing and chattering, Phil looked on the floor. Barry was hiding at three thick textbooks lying near the loose leaf on the desk. Phil put his hand around the books toward him. Barry backed up from it but backed right into Phil's other hand. He was enclosed by it. Phil stared only at his teacher. He then put Barry into an empty cigarette box in his desk and took the box out and put it into his shirt pocket. Barry leaned on a cigarette and noticed it was hollow. Inside, was what looked like rolled up seeds. 
Steve and Valerie knelt by the edge of the commons area. There were two teens, male and female, who sat in front of the vent they had to get into. The boy had long blonde hair and the girl was a filthy mess. The girl took out plastic and Val noticed it had white powder in it. She shook herself to confront the problem of Barry. "So Steve, how do we get in?" 
Steve grabbed her hand, "I'll show you." They walked under a parked car to the side of the two giants who sat on the wood benches. At the other side of the wall was an alley between two other walls and at the end of the alley were four doors. "There." 
Val warned, "Giants!" Four boys emerged from two of those doors. They seemed younger than the others. 
A tall, neat looking boy said, "Now we play fair and square." 
"Me and my pal play no other way." 
Val quipped, "They've sure mastered the English language." 
"Sure, Robac, sure." 
"Let's start," a smaller, black haired boy said and the game of handball began. 
"Now what?" Val bent down again, "Where do we go in?" 
Steve smirked, "Well, even these pros muff up once in awhile. Are you game?" 
"Welllll, they'll see us." Val smiled back at him, "They're sure to see us." No answer. "...however...I'm game." 
"The next clear shot then." 
Val frowned, "I'm just worried about their clear shots." 
The four boys who played handball were very good at it. Steve watched from the corner of the alley, "They're not making any mistakes." The sound of the ball being hit against the wall and their hands began to dull the pair of Earth humans. 
"At this rate, we could be here all day." 
Steve checked his watch, "We have about forty minutes till the next period." 
"You mean this handball game had periods, like hockey?" 
Suddenly, the popping sound of the flying ball stopped. Robac, the red headed boy, laughed, "You messed up, Jadarn!" 
"That means we serve." 
"No, we serve," Val said as she and Steve ran along the wall, the wall away from the boys but also opposite them. 
Robac said, "Come on, give me the ball." The shorter boy picked it up and handed it to Robac while Valerie and Steve ran. Robac served. Val screamed as the rubber ball bounced in front of them. Jadarn hit it next as it came to him and it bounced above their heads. 
Steve pulled Val's hand, "Don't stop!" 
The third boy hit the ball and it smashed behind Val. Steve pulled her toward a curb. The last boy hit the ball and then Robac hit it. 
Steve gasped, "Watch it!" 
Robac hit the ball too low and just as Steve and Val stopped running to jump up the curb toward the four doors, the bouncing ball flew toward both little people. 
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PART THREE<br> 
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Steve jerked Val's arm and made them both move out of the way of the giant rubber handball. One of the boys looked, "See that?!" 
"Yeah, I saw them! I been trying to hit em'." 
"Hey, they're worth a fortune!" 
"What's a fortune to we, or should I say me, who already has." 
"Let's get em!" 
Val and Steve jumped up the curb but Steve pulled her to the open door. A giant man, moved past them, too intent on the four boys to notice the two little people underfoot. After he left they moved on. Steve pulled her back. Val nudged his shoulder, "Let's go Steve, they're sure to tell him..." 
"I want to know exactly what they'll tell him." 
The four boys were trying to tell the man but he wasn't listening. "You four belong in Math! Now I find you four out here playing handball." 
"But sir, it's true, I tell ya!" 
"Little people, huh. Well, maybe." 
"Uh oh," Steve whispered. 
"And last week, it was UFO's, and yesterday, a stray pack of dogs." 
Val whispers to Steve, "They were right about the dogs though. I saw them myself..." 
"Sshhhh." 
"It's just another excuse to get your attention...or to get my attention off punishing all four of you. Get inside and to the main office." 
Val gasped, "Steve, they're coming this way." 
They race inside the hall. "He must be on duty in this hall." Val brushed her hair back, "Looks all clear." 
"Looks can be deceiving---but so what." Steve lead her into another hall. 
Mark and Betty came out from another door. Betty rubbed the back of her ankle, "Oh Mark, we've looked and looked. Where can Barry be?" 
"I don't know. I'm tired, too. We have two more rows to check. If he's not there, he's upstairs." They rested on the door framing before moving on. 
Mrs. Osem walked down a hall and looked downward for signs of the little people. A young girl, passing her, gave her a funny look. Osem moved to a door and opened it. She asked a chunky secretary, "Is Mr. Henn in?" 
"Oh yes, go on in." 
Osem walked by the woman and into Henn's office, leaving the door to it open, "Mr. Henn?" 
"That's Dr. Henn now. I just got my doctorate in the mail." 
"Oh, congratulations and all that." 
"Come in, Mrs. Osem," Henn said as he sat at his desk, eyeing his new degree. 
Osem sat down in a chair facing him. "This is important, doctor." 
"Oh yes, Mrs. Osem," Henn raised an eyebrow, "What is it now? Mice, rats, perhaps ants again, or maybe stray dogs..." 
"What is now is LITTLE PEOPLE!!!" 
"LITTLE PEOPLE!!!" He jumped up from behind his desk and realized how loud he was, "Shhh! Little people? Are you sure it wasn't a mouse?" 
"Sure I'm sure. Two of them were in a hall. Trying to come into my class of all the nerve--during a discussion of the reproductive system through poetry." 
"Maybe they wanted to show you...never mind. Very well. I'll take care of it." 
"Are you sure?" 
"Yes, yes." 
"I mean what will you do?" 
"Don't worry," he came from behind his desk and escorted her up and out, "You may go now. Make sure you have a pass," he kidded her. 
Osem scowled and marched out. Henn picked up a phone. 
Fitzhugh and Dan tired, walked past the glass showcase of the library. Inside were all types of books. Fitzhugh said, "We searched every room up here." 
Dan yawned, "Maybe he has an off-period in which case he'd be in the lunch room or the library." Dan walked into the open doors of the library, Fitzhugh right behind him. 
A tall, slack shouldered, black haired, witch-looking woman with a long nose and a mole on it was putting books away on a shelf. Dan walked past her, under a desk to a counter shelf. Fitzhugh watched the woman from the leg of a stool. Dan looked in the room at various reading and writing students. The lady stepped on the stool and Fitzhugh watched her other foot. 
Two noisy students--a boyfriend and a girlfriend--were whispering a fight they were having. The lady turned from the stool, came off it, and went over to them, "Quiet in this library or you'll be ejected. In other words--stifle." 
Dan was near a leg of the chair nearest her. He ran out to a shelf and around it but the lady saw him. She towered over the other side of the shelf. Fitzhugh yelled, "Dan! Lookout, Dan!" The woman towered over Dan, reaching down with long arms and pointy, red polished fingernails. Dan ran fast, motivated by fear. The lady pushed a stack of books off the shelf top level. They landed behind the fleeing Dan! Dan ran to Fitzhugh and they both ran into the hall. The librarian followed them out into it. 
Fitzhugh gasped, "We can't get down!" 
"I know!" Dan said, looking back, "Keep moving!" 
The giantess was growing in size to their point of view as she lumbered at them. Fitzhugh stopped running at a long metal slot in the tiled wall--one Dan had passed up. "Dan! Dan, come here!" 
Dan ran to him as the giant woman approached, "What?!" 
"This must be some kind of mail chute--it goes downstairs, I think!" 
"Get in it!" Dan pushed him into the sliding door opening just as a huge hand groped down at them. Dan saw it but he hopped in, just in time, sure he felt the hand brush past his jacket, actually touching him. Dan slid down a rectangular darkness, Fitzhugh just under him. Fitzhugh piled out first--into a lumpy pile of whiteness. Dan plunged after him and the first thing he did was pull a cobweb off his face. Dusty, thank goodness, no spiders. He had flown out of the wall slot and into a sack propped against the wall. They found they found themselves in a mess of massive letters. 
A short, blonde haired teacher came into the office and looked at the secretary and said, "I'll just look for my letter. I forgot to stamp it." 
Dan whispered, "Look for the one without a stamp!" 
The blonde reached in and searched. Fitzhugh and Dan dove under the envelopes. Fitzhugh gasped, "We'll never find it!" He ducked as her hand passed overhead. The woman took the sack and turned it toward one side--it was too heavy to completely dump it onto the main office bench--Dan thanked goodness again for that. But he and Fitzhugh were rolled over as she dumped a pile of letters to the bench. "Here!" Fitzhugh saw it and for a moment, felt as if it would elude his grasp as it threatened to sink further down into t he sack. Odd that, his freedom relying on a piece of unstamped postage. He lunged and got his grip on it. "Dan!" 
Dan grabbed the letter with Fitzhugh as he swam through white corners of envelopes. "Let go, Fitz." As Alex listened, Dan hurled the letter upward. 
The woman, beginning a look in, was almost hit by it as it shot up out of the sack. "How odd." She said, her nose pointing up, "It must have fallen." She picked it up. Remaining still, Fitzhugh and Dan listened. 
Dan puffed, "We have to get out of this." 
"Sure we do but how?" 
"Open one of these," Dan grabbed a letter envelope while Fitzhugh held it. He tried to pry it open as gently as he could without letting it be obvious that it was torn open. 
A giant mail carrier suddenly appeared at the opening above them, towering. He started to remove the letters and put them in his knapsack. He turned to see a flurry of letters sitting on the bench, the blonde lady passing him by. The older-looking man took some of the letters off the bench and felt them, "Some of these letters are heavy enough to have more postage and handling charges on them--I should take them all out and weigh them." He tossed it into the knapsack and it landed on top the envelope Fitzhugh and Dan were in and its weight dropped their heads a bit. They were beneath the letter in the envelope that Dan pried open. More rained in on them. Dan and Fitzhugh felt a tilting motion as the man put the knapsack over his shoulder. The mailman headed for the exit door upon leaving the main office. 
A voice stopped him, "Could you take this, Joe?" 
It was the blonde teacher. "Oh sure," Joe said and took off his knapsack, causing that swinging motion again. He walked to her, "I'll get it." 
"Out!" Dan opened the seal he had been holding shut and the stickem glue almost kept them prisoner but it gave. 
"Out?" 
"Now!" Dan prodded. 
Fitzhugh followed him out of the letter envelope and into the sack which opened out onto the floor. 
The lady looked her nose up at Joe, "I just put a stamp on it." 
"Fine, no problem," Joe smiled. He took the letter. 
"Thanks," the woman, snooty, walked off. Dan and Fitzhugh fall out of the sack, whose opening didn't quite reach the floor. 
Joe whistled, happy, and he walked back to his fallen sack. Around a corner, terribly close, Dan and Fitzhugh remained very still. 
Phil stood up from his seat and walked up to Mr. Jerad, "Can I have a bathroom pass?" 
"For?" 
"For? For taking a sh...for going to the bathroom. What else?" 
Barry, in the cigarette box in the pocket of the rock shirt, frowned, "Nice guy." 
"Can't you wait until the end of the period." 
"No, you see, I...I have this kidney thing...and...." 
"Here," Jerad writes out a pass quickly and in anger, "Here. Go." 
Phil walked out into the hallway and looked in at Barry, "You safe, little pal?" 
"Yes but what are you going to do with me? Turn me in to the SID?" 
"SID? No, I dislike them as much as you do. They're always pushing around us little guys. Uhh--sorry, no offense but we're the same really. No power against the establishment." 
"Oh come on. Is that why you smoke this?" 
"Well, that just sort of happened. You know heading for life without a goal isn't easy. Problems, problems." 
Barry shook his head, "So this junk helps you forget them--for awhile the problems go away. Is that it?" 
"At first, it was but you see, I became what Inspector Kobick would call--addicted and not just to that. I need stronger...medicine." 
"Is that why you faked wanting to go to the bathroom?" 
"No, we're going." Phil walked down the hall and into the bathroom. 
Inside, were two younger looking boys, one with very long black hair, a denim jacket, and hole filled dungarees. "Phil, we thought you wouldn't show." 
"Me, Cohen, not show?" 
The other boy, a stout red head, spouted, "The money? Do you have the money?" 
"I have something better than money." He took out the box and dumped Barry out into his other hand. Cohen and Farley stared at him. 
"This changes things, Phil, man." 
"Yeah, we can't get mixed up with little people." 
Barry, filled with anger at all three, sat down in Phil's hand. It's hard to look dignified that way but it was safest. "This changes nothing!" 
"I don't know." 
"Just give me what I need." 
"We...we have to consult him." 
"Why? Look, you can turn him in, get a big reward---more money than you could charge." 
"But Kobick's cracking down on us. Just last period he took in some our customers." 
"Don't be afraid of him. Why, you could even blame the drugs on the little people. SID will fall for that." 
"You just want the new drugs." 
"After gym class we'll let you know." 
"Fair enough," Phil smiled. 
The two boys strutted out. Barry stood up, "How can you do that? You're a heel, you know that!" 
Phil dropped him into the box, "I don't want to, Barry, but I have to think of me first." 
"Yeah, well, my friends don't think of themselves first. I bet they're trying to find me right now." 
"More of you?" 
Barry winced. He blew it. 
Betty and Mark met Dan and Fitzhugh. Betty touched Dan's arm, "Any luck with Barry?" 
Dan shook his head, "No, how bout you two?" 
"Same," she answered in a defeated voice. Mark snorted. 
"Well, let us sincerely hope Steve and Valerie are having better luck than we," Fitzhugh said. 
Walking with Steve from a door, Valerie said, "We're not having any luck at all." 
"I know," Steve said lowly. He lead her to a series of four open doors and they hid behind a small, lite-colored tan frame. Students came in and out of the doors. 
Val smelled what must have been the cafeteria, "Reminds me of the food when I was in high school." 
"You were in high school?" 
"Even in the rich neighborhoods, school food really stunk." Val looked around, "Busy area." She peeked into the lunch room and saw teens eating. 
"See him?" 
"No, not from here. Do we go in?" 
"No way," Steve winced as a boy passed, "Like you said--too busy." 
"What then?" 
"Hide!" 
"That's what we do to find Barry?" Val looked at him. He pulled her to a small partition divider between the doors as a gang of teens came too close to the place they were at. This gang was of girl and guys who thought of themselves as cool. They walked in a slow moving fashion, strutting and moving their shoulders. Steve looked up, "They're too...too cool for me." He motioned to Val, "I wish we could find the others. Among us we could find and rescue Barry." 
"But by now, between us, we should have found him already." She rested her back on the divider. 
"You're forgetting, the classes change every forty five minutes." 
"We'll never find him then. It's like a constantly changing jigsaw puzzle--the giant who has Barry may even have cut class." 
"And risk getting caught with a little person? I doubt it." 
"Well, let's pick a hallway then," she removed herself from the short rest. A giant girl walked by. "We can't stay here, Steve." Steve took Val's hand and they both ran. 
Dan, Fitzhugh, Betty, and Mark stopped at a row of giant lockers. "We'd better take cover--maybe in one of these lockers." 
"The bell's going to ring soon," Betty looked at her watch. 
Dan smiled, "That's what I mean. Come on." They started to climb the vents in the lockers but the bell rang out. "No time! Drain!" Dan jumped down as the sounds of people filled the hallway. The four of them ran. Doors opened up from both sides of the hall, depositing Giants from every direction. Dan ran to the drain and turned to Mark and Betty, "Fitzhugh? Where's Fitzhugh?" 
"Oh, he's right..." Betty looked over her shoulder, "...behind..." He was gone. 
"Fitz!" Dan yelled. A crowd of giants came down the hall. 
Mark pulled Dan back, "No good, Dan!" He pulled Dan and a panicked Betty into the drain as huge feet stomped at them. Dan looked out. No one had seen them so he was safe. But another wasn't. "Fitzhugh?" 
Steve and Valerie ran past a step. Unaware giants passed them, stomping feet up and down. Steve pointed, shrugging to Valerie. They ran to an empty popcorn box which was lying on the floor. A giant girl walked by as they run to its interior. She accidently kicked it. "Ohhh!" She had braids, braces, and glasses. "Litterbugs! Locker cleanup means hall dirtying!" 
She picked up the box, which launched Valerie toward the opening! Steve pulled Val's arm and grabbed her back to him. The giant girl tossed the box through the air. The pair of them fall. The pop-corn box landed in a large round pail-a drum shaped one. Here, teens had emptied out their locker garbage. Some were still throwing garbage in it. Steve and Val were sent up as the popcorn box landed on a pile of paper garbage. The giant girl walked away, content she had done her part. Steve motioned for Val to help him push on the box and together they tilted it on its side so they could look out the ridged opening. 
Val peered out, "Where are we now?" They moved closer toward the opening of the box which was now on its side. 
"Looks like a...ahh...a garbage drum. See any way down?" "Nope." 
The bell rang again as the kids slowly finished. They began to empty the hall, none in too much of a hurry. As they left, a giant in dirty overalls came up to the can and picked it up. He put it on a wheeled cart. Steve and Val fell back into the box as it turned right side up again, tilting so that the hole was above them. Steve managed to climb up the side which slanted a bit. "Janitor." 
"Where's he taking us?" 
"I don't know. Just hold on." Steve waved at her. The custodian stopped at two more drums and put them on the cart also. He wheeled the cart down a hallway. The man passed Phil, who walked to a locker. At another locker, Fitzhugh stared up at Phil. 
Cohen came up to Phil, "You going to gym?" 
"Yeah, what's the word on the little people?" 
"I'll tell ya in gym. C'mon, you're making us late." 
"Go on, then. I'll meet you there." Cohen started to walk off as Phil rummaged through his locker. "What a mess. I should've cleaned this." 
Another boy came up to Phil, "You're late, you know, Phil." 
"I know, I know." 
"Just telling you," the boy hurried past. 
Phil calls, "Oh, Edar, wait!" He took out a pair of purple shorts, "Your gym shorts I borrowed. Here." He walked down the hall to catch up to Edar. Fitzhugh, waiting on the other side of the lockers saw his chance. He dashed under the open locker door and jumped up into it. As Phil returned, Fitzhugh opened a lunch bag and climbed in. "Now I am going to be late." 
Phil grabbed his lunch bag and shut the door. Fitzhugh began to rock inside. He sat down on a wrapped up sandwich. He thought how much this reminded him of the time he was trapped in another lunch bag--one taken by two boys and later by a giant monkey. 
Phil ran to a green double doors and in. He hurried to his gym locker and opened it. It was a small square locker not too far from the floor. Fitzhugh fought back nausea as the swinging motion came to an end. He figured all this time in the land of the giants, he'd be used to it by now. He sat in the dark of the locker for some time until he recalled his flashlight was still attached to his belt. It would come in handy. 
The custodian wheeled the cart into a boiler room. Val looked over the side of the can, "What's he doing?" 
"I can't see him," Steve joined her. They had climbed out of the popcorn box. 
The man opened two wall doors to a furnace. Fire started to build up inside. He took a can off the cart and started to dump its contents into the fire. 
Val whispered, "Sounds like fire." 
"Or... a furnace!" Steve guessed. 
Something took hold of the can. They both fall onto the papers. Val yelled, "He's got us!" 
The giant took their can to the furnace and tipped it. Val and Steve could see the fire at the brim of the opening. Their faces began to sweat and the wondered if it was from the intense heat or the fact that they were facing their death. "Down!" Steve pulled her. Trash fell out into the fire. The giant picked it up some more. Steve and Val climbed down through paper--which was falling out the other end as the can tipped. The janitor emptied the can. All the garbage was out and in the fire. On the bottom of the can was a rusty hole. The giant needed rest and he tipped the can back down toward the floor. As he did, Val crawled out of it, followed by Steve. They ran to a giant mop, which leaned against a wall. 
Val gasped, "How did you know there was a hole at the bottom of the can?" 
"I didn't." 
"You..." she gulped. 
Steve shrugged, passing off her accusing face, "There was no where else to go." 
"He didn't even see us," Val said bravely. 
"Well, he has now!!" Steve looked up as the giant towered over them. 
"Two of you! That will enable me to retire right now!!" 
"Retire? I think you should!" Steve grabbed the wooden handle on the mop and leaned his whole body on it. The top of the stick bumped the janitor on the head as he bent over to grab them. "Come on! Run! Run!" Val needed no pushing. They both ran out as the man regained his senses. 
Fitzhugh finished eating some bread and a piece of apple he had cut out with a pocket knife. He swallowed, "Oh boy, that was good." He was enjoying this immensely. He started to put the knife away in his pocket when he realized who owned the knife. "Barry." He suddenly remembered why he was here. He opened the lunch bag and climbed out inside a dark locker, which was stuffed with Phil's baggy clothes. A dim light snuck into the locker and Fitzhugh shut his flashlight. He knew this natural light was a way out. He put his pudgy body through a small vent from which the light was coming in. He put his feet in first but he soon became caught around the stomach area. Fitzhugh pushed his hands against the vent and shoved with all his might. This made him come loose and he fell--and fell. It was a larger drop than he anticipated. He fell on his shoulder and rolled over in pain. Fitzhugh felt he was about to pass out. 
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PART FOUR<br> 
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Fitzhugh had fallen onto the floor of the gym locker room, a depressed place. He didn't know how long he was there, trying to recover from his fall but the gym doors began to open and two young, gym teachers came in. Light flooded in but it couldn't reach him. He wouldn't be seen unless they came all the way in. "While they're playing, I want to check the lockers before next period." 
"You never know what's dropped out of them. Last week we found some king of drug." 
Fitzhugh heard them but couldn't get out. The lights went on and this made him awaken to full alert status. He crawled, turning over onto his belly. He made it to a bench with two side walls, not really enough cover but it had to do for now. The two gym teachers looked around, checking locks. Fitzhugh stood up, shook his head, and held onto the side of the bench for support. Huge sneakers passed him. He ran out the open doors and onto the waxed gym floor. He inched his way along a row of bleachers and moved slowly. A giant volleyball bounced above his head and flew off. He stopped. Girls laughed at the volleyball game they played. Fitzhugh began to move after a boy retrieved the ball. The game began again and Fitzhugh ran behind jumping giant figures who were too busy to bother seeing him. 
He ran to a door which was swinging open and closed with a slight breeze from outside. With no time to worry, he timed it so that he could run when it was open. He ducked outside and ran to a cement black top. A giant black boy bounced an orange basketball right near him. He ducked at a cornerstone and saw that a game of shirts and skins was in progress, also so important to the kids that none of them saw him. As the black boy dribbled, another boy tried to knock it away. The giant dribbled around the new kid but another knocked the ball from his hand. "Foul!" As Fitzhugh ran, the huge orange basketball tumbled after him, fallen. 
"Where's the ball?" 
"I'll get it!" The black boy ran for it. Fitzhugh reached the end of the blacktop and looked over his shoulder. The orange mass rolled straight at him. He jumped off the cement onto a grassy hill. The ball rolled off after him but bounced in a different direction. Fitzhugh laid low in the grass until the boy passed to get the ball. 
Also outside somewhere, Phil put the cigarette box in a glass jar and put it on the grass. He then put a red, cracked brick he found in the dirt on top of it. Barry climbed out of the box but was in the jar. "That will hold you." 
Barry called out, "I'll suffocate." 
"You'll only be in there for a half hour. Sit still." 
Barry sat in the jar and sarcastically added, "Only a half hour." 
Phil, in his gym clothes, ran to his teacher. The small, stocky man yelled, "You're late again!" 
"I'm sorry, I..." 
"Well, you have next period free, so now you'll just have to stay and make up the time." 
"But..." 
"Either that or you'll fail." 
Cohen came up behind Phil, "Failing gym is pretty lame." 
Phil turned to him, "What's the verdict?" 
The teacher moved out to direct the whole class, "Let's choose sides for the football game." 
Cohen looked at Phil, "It's a deal. After you're done, give us the boy." 
"All right." 
"Burgon, Deed, you pick sides." 
Fitzhugh ran off the grass into a dirt field. He passed a large square in the ground and looked up, noticing a giant baseball game. A giant with a mitt on was backing up toward him. A runner stopped on third base, which made the bases loaded. Fitzhugh ducked near a rock. The runner watched as his batter hit a home run. Fitzhugh watched as three giants passed third base. He started to run but the ball came flying to the third baseman. The last runner slid toward third. Fitzhugh ran as a trail of dust covered the entire area. He saw a huge foot sliding out of the smoke at him--followed by the giant attached to it. Fitzhugh ran around it, into more dust. He ran out of the field and into the football field. 
Soon, the bell ran inside. Mark, Dan, and Betty ran to a space behind an open door. Valerie and Steve ran down a hall. Val yelled, "They're all over the place!" 
They run under a door. Val looked about, "Storage room. We're safe for now." 
"Unless that janitor comes back." 
Kobick walked into in his office where Greyson sat on top his desk. "Well?" 
Greyson said, "Our connection says he will have both the little people and the dealer." 
"Good, good. And since they are one and the same, that shouldn't be too difficult." 
"He isn't sure they are connected. I would say they're not." 
"I'm not interested in what you'd say," Kobick pouted. 
Fitzhugh ran blindly across the football field. A group of boys tackled another who had the football. The group landed right in front of Fitzhugh with the tackled boy almost face to face with him. Fitzhugh moved back, away from the boy and then ran. 
"All right, take it from here." 
The boy shook his head and the others prompted him into continuing the game. The lumbering giants stood and formed a front line. They counted numbers off for a hike and Fitzhugh finally heard the, "Hike!" The boys all ran. 
Fitzhugh watched, "Just like on Earth." 
The quarterback threw the ball but it was too high and went sailing over the intended boy. The ball smacked across the top of the jar, removing the brick. The brick fell over and so did Barry within the glass. Phil looked at this, "I'll get it!" 
"No, you stay here," the teacher snapped from the sideline. 
Barry got behind the box while another giant boy ran to recover the ball. Then he stood up to try to twist the lid off. As the boys began to line up, Fitzhugh chanced a run across the field--toward a goalpost far behind them. He reached it but saw giants chasing the boy with the ball. They came running right at him again. Other boys blocked for the runner. To Fitzhugh it seemed as if skyscrapers were moving through the area. Dirt came flying up at Fitzhugh who hid behind the white goal post. Other boys tackled this runner and they all tumbled in a heap just short of the goal post. Fitzhugh saw them all and realized the giant boys were once again caught in a moment of confusion. He ran. 
Barry was busy trying to unscrew the lid. He was so busy, he failed to see a pallid, white spider crawl on top of the lid. Huffing, Fitzhugh ran to the brick for a hiding spot but at this range, he couldn't help but notice the jar. "Barry!" He scurried over to it, "Boy, are you all right?" 
Barry banged on the jar, "Mister Fitzhugh. Get me out!" 
"Hold on, I'm gonna tip it over. It'll be easier to..." spotting the spider, Fitzhugh yelled and then picked up a broken branch. "Hold on, Barry!" Fitzhugh ran at the side of the jar and pushed it, Barry aiding him from within and pushing against the other side. The spider, tense, crawled off. It must have been a baby spider, Fitzhugh thought. It was very small. "Are you hurt?" 
"No, but Mister Fitzhugh, I'm running out of air." 
Fitzhugh dropped the branch and walked to the lid. He began to twist, "You'll be out in no time." 
Valerie and Steve slipped out from under the door of the storage room. Val swallowed, "Why not call the others. See what they found." 
"Good idea. I'll..." a giant hand grabbed both of them. 
Cohen snatched up Valerie and Steve, sneering at them. The two of them have learned by now that to struggle in a giant's hand was useless. Better not to fight it. They would just have to await their fate. The boy giant laughed. He dropped them into a pocket on his black leather vest and zipped it up. 
At a drain opening, Henn came to two men that were in white overalls. "This will do the job?" 
"It'll get the mice and whatever other pests may be in there." 
"Good, good. That's what I want it for." 
Barry fell from lack of air. "Barry!" Fitzhugh bit his tongue and turned the lid with all his might. He started to sweat but finally the lid came off. He went inside and pulled Barry out by his arms, "Barry...are you, can you hear me?" 
Barry opened his eyes, "Mr. Fitzhugh. You did it." 
"Get some air first before you sit up." 
A football crashed into the grass nearby. Barry saw it, "No. We have to go. I...can make it, sir." 
"Good, lad, come." Fitzhugh stood up from the boy and helped him stand, "I'm glad you...you're okay." The pair walked off to the field. "We're going to the ship to call the others. I'm afraid my radio is not in the best of shape." 
"That means we have to cross them." 
"It's easy. I've done it before." Fitzhugh looked up as the giants lined up again, "Quick. Before he says hike!" 
"Hike!" 
Fitzhugh thought it was too late but Barry had already started out. He followed as fast as he could. They ran across the field as the giants ran in the opposite direction. "Keep running!" The pair raced off the field to grass. A sneaker stomped by them, running after the boy. A baseball player hit a ball and ran. A boy threw it toward home but it wasn't a far enough throw. 
Barry saw the ball, "Lookout!" He pushed Fitzhugh and the ball smashed between them. They ran to a metal pole. 
"Where are we now?" Barry's question was answered by a huge basketball crashing down in front of them. 
"Under the hoop," Fitzhugh looked up, "RUN!" 
They move off the area altogether. In a vent, Dan told Mark and Betty, "I can't get Steve and Valerie. Maybe they're in trouble." 
Mark, keeping a watchful eye out for movement in the drain in case any more rats were around, said, "So are we!" He spotted a cloud of whiteness coming at them through the pipe. "RUN!" 
The trio ran down a drain pipe but giant rat growled at them, emerging from another pipe! They stop just under it. Dan grunted, "Don't move!" 
Betty gasped, "I can reach out and touch it!" 
"Tell the phone company," Mark flinched. 
The gas came up to the rat and it turned toward the cloud and backed off from it. This allowed the three to run. Dan snapped, "Move it! Find an opening!" They pace to another vent but smoke started to fill in from it. 
Mark coughed, "We'll be dead in a few minutes." 
Dan coughed, "I know. That stuff's a killer!" 
"Well, come on," Betty pleaded, "There's got to be way that's clear!" They follow her and the deadly white mist follows, enveloping in on itself in large swirls. 
At SID headquarters, Kobick and Greyson were arguing when a knock came to the door of Kobick's office. Both yelled, "COME IN!!!" 
The door opened and Cohen came in. Kobick demanded, "What are you doing here?" 
Without a word, Cohen put his hands to the desk. Steve and Valerie fell out of his hands onto the desk--and landed on their backs. Steve got up, "Take it easy, creep," he yelled to the boy. 
Val straightened her skirt, "Kobick, do me a favor and don't give him a reward. He'd only spend it on drugs." 
"No, he won't. Not anymore." 
Steve laughed, "You mean he and you, you and he...oh man. He's an informant? A what....a thirteen or fourteen year old boy." 
"Why not?" Greyson defends, "We had to get the dealers." 
Kobick frowned, "Who is he? Why are you helping him? Are the drugs you're using from your planet or are they grown here?" 
"Kobick, my old friend," Steve laughed, "You've finally cracked up." 
Greyson says, "We know what the plants look like." 
Kobick tells him, "It will go badly for your group, captain, unless you tell us how you grow them, where the plants are, and who the top man is..." 
"We have other ways...ways I don't like to use but..." 
"Wait a minute! Will you two slow up. Just hold up. We're not in league with any two bit pusher!" 
"Can you prove what they say?" Greyson asked Cohen. 
Cohen brushed back his hair with his hand, grinning, "No, no, I can't." 
Greyson frowned, "Exactly what have you found out?" 
"That Farley is the connection to the top dog. And that the dealer will meet his suppliers tonight at the baseball park." 
Kobick grabbed a pad, "Well that is news. We won't need you little monsters to tell us." 
"Greyson," Steve began, "...you said you know what the plants look like? Do you have a picture--or a drawing maybe?" 
"Well...why? Yes. Yes." Greyson opened a file cabinet and took out a photo. Carefully, he placed it before the two littles. 
Val and Steve walk up to it as it lands. Val searched her thoughts, "That looks familiar to me." 
Kobick heard that, "Further evidence of your guilt." 
Steve snapped his fingers, "Of course it does--we've both seen it." 
In the vent, Betty, Dan, and Mark ran to another opening. Dan coughed and looked out, "Looks clear." 
Mark glanced over his shoulder at a widening cloud of the killer bug smoke. "Let's get..." From the opening, they heard a motor. Outside, an exterminator turned on a machine. It pumped vicious white smoke in at them. "We're penned in!" 
They back up but the mist behind them overtakes them. Both clouds meet with the three in between. Mark coughed and fell. 
Betty stooped over him, "Ohh Mark! Mark!" She coughed as she tried to find out if he was still conscious. 
Dan took off and waved his jacket in a futile gesture to create room to breathe. "Come on! You two get up!" He helped Betty lift Mark up. "Mark, you have to stay up!" 
Betty coughed, "Oh Dan, it's no good!" Mark falls from her grasp as she dropped her arm from around him, too weak to hold him. Dan pulled Mark up but now Betty fell. 
Groggy, Dan yawned, "We...have...to...keep..." Dan slumped over with Mark. The three of them laid in the drain with heavy mist surrounding them and they almost vanished within it. 
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PART FIVE<br> 
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The gym teacher saw Phil panting and puffing. "Okay, Phil, you can go now. Only try to use the time to study or something." 
"Or something," Phil whispered and then said aloud, "Sure. I...will." 
The boy trotted off from the football game toward the jar. "Barry." He found it open and on its side. Phil tossed the jar. Phil, nervous and jumpy, headed for the locker room area. He stopped and looked at a man who was at a drain. The man started a machine and smoke went into the vent. Phil looked at it. 
The second exterminator came out of the school to this man. "That should do it then. How about a lunch break?" 
"Leave it?" 
"Yes, in a few minutes time, any pests will be dead." 
"All right, if you say so." 
"All we have to do is come back, shut it off, and clean out anything dead inside--and anything alive in there is dead...very dead." 
"Let's go then. I'm starved." 
Phil heard this and watched them leave. "Barry!" Phil tore the device away from the vent and shut it off. "Barry, you may have gotten away from me, but I don't want you dead." He ran into the school and found another device which he pulled away from the drain and shut. All he knew was he wanted to save Barry if he could despite what he had wanted to use the little boy for. 
In the circular drain, Dan blinked. The mist seemed to him to have thinned slightly. He sat up and although he could hardly breath, he decided to try to stand. He did so slowly and saw some thin rays of light sneaking through the mist. Dan moved that way. Something made him stagger. No--someone. Mark...Mark and Betty were in here with him. 
Phil ran to another exterminating machine near the lunchroom and from the hall, could see the two men drinking coffee within it. He shut down the device. 
Dan helped Mark and Betty down from the vent. All were coughing but they were outside and there was no sign of giants. "Let's get back to the..." 
"Dan, Fitzhugh calling. Fitzhugh calling Dan. Dan?" 
"Fitzhugh," Dan took his radio off his belt and opened it, looking up for any giants, "Go ahead, Fitzhugh." 
"I've got Barry and we're back at the ship." 
He was very happy to hear Fitzhugh was all right and even happier that the man had managed to rescue Barry, probably single handedly. Fitzhugh was surprising that way. He could come through when the chips were down and just when no one expected him to. "What?" 
"I wish you could all get back here. It was the..." 
"Not now, Fitz," Dan called. An SID car pulled up to the school. "We're on our way." Dan lead Betty and Mark to a shrub as far away from the school as they could get--which wasn't far. 
Mark only realized what the arrival of the car meant, "Oh great. Just what we need." 
Betty wiped tears from the mist, away as Kobick stepped out of the car, "Oh no. Kobick again!" 
"And Greyson," Mark reported. 
Kobick lowered Steve and Valerie down to the ground to a row of plants. Val said, "These are the ones we ran through." 
"Or planted," Kobick insisted, bent over to talk to them. 
"Kobick, use your head. Would we lead you to them if we did!" Steve yelled at him. 
Dan heard and squinted, "He has Steve and Valerie!" 
Kobick answered, "It would throw suspicion off you." 
"Greyson, who was it who saved your life once before? Yeah, remember..." Steve read Greyson's guilt easily enough. Greyson was about to be killed by his own sergeant when Steve warned him. Greyson looked away from Steve. "...and you Kobick...who helped you save the city? You know where they're meeting tonight. Grab them and let us go." 
Greyson said, "We can't let you go this time, Burton. I don't think you have anything to do with the drugs but we still have to round your people up." 
"Thanks a lot," Val sounded sincere until she added, "..for nothing." 
Kobick looked closer to them, "You'll at least be with us tonight when we do round them up--to tell us if you've seen any of them near those vicious things." 
"Imagine planting the drugs right here in the commons area so no one would look here," Val told Steve. 
"Pretty smart," he said, "But also kind of...dangerous." 
Dan whispered, "C'mon--someone say where you're meeting them." 
Steve looked at Kobick's face, "Okay, we'll be with you at that baseball park. If what you said about quite a few kids dying from this stuff is true and I'm sure it is...you can depend on us to help stop it." 
"Thanks Steve," Dan smiled. 
Kobick wrapped his hand around the pair and put them in a blue cage, "I do this with remorse." 
"Cut the bull, Kobick," Steve looked out at him as Kobick held them up to his face, which filled the cage wire-window. 
Greyson kept silent, knowing the little people not to be the menace they were once made out to be. But it was his job to capture them, like it or not--and he always did his job--whether he liked it or not. 
Dan waited until the giants retreated to the car and the car zoomed away. "You two fit for movement?" They both nodded. They looked out that the attention the giant teens had given to the SID car had waned. The teens soon dispersed. "Let's get back to the ship. Kobick will soon have some men take those plants away." 
Mark looked at him, "I doubt it. Not until after tonight. If he did, that would ruin the whole thing. If a kid dies today, that'll be okay with that one. Just as long as all goes well tonight." 
Betty looked at them both, "What about tonight. We've got to be there too. To help Steve and Val." 
"Let's go," ordered Dan, "We'll figure it out at the ship." 
Night came---Phil followed Farley and Cohen toward the baseball park. The night seemed to drag on and on after they told him that the suppliers would be real upset over not having Barry. The two boys were now on their way to tell this to Mr. Big, whoever that was. 
The night came relatively fast for the others from Spindrift. Preparing for a rescue which seemed impossible took up all their time. Dan lead Betty, Mark, Fitzhugh, and Barry past a wire fence to the dugout area. They hid behind a bench support. 
On the field a dark car sat as if it belonged there. A spider in a trap. Mark pointed it out to Dan with infra-red binoculars. "It's them all right. Now all we have to do is wait for Kobick to show." 
Dan grunted, "Where is he anyway?" 
Fitzhugh placed himself in between the two men, "Actually this is the first time we want him to come." 
Dan turned to him, still tired and annoyed, "Thanks for pointing that out, Fitzhugh." Fitzhugh cowered back. Dan's smile made him return. "Sorry, Fitz, just worried about Steve and Valerie." 
"Quite understandable." 
Betty looked to the left, "Giants. Two of them." 
Along the fence the shadowy figures of Cohen and Farley moved along casually. The pair came out onto the field and moved at the parked car. 
"Where are the police?" Fitzhugh asked. "...when you need them." They all looked at him, aware he had been a con man on Earth. Barry smiled. 
"I don't know where they are," Dan said disgusted, "We can't help Steve and Valerie unless..." 
Mark opened a suitcase into which he had long ago placed a small radio like device he fashioned out of old spare parts from tape recorder and worn radios. He put it on a large, flat rock. Mark had an ear jack plugged into it and an antenna was attached and spinning. "Listen..." He turned up the volume so they could all hear. 
The car door opened and a voice within said, "Where are the little people? Do you have them?" 
"Cohen..." Farley nodded. 
"Here," Cohen took out Steve and Valerie and displayed them in his palm, "But shouldn't we wait for our dealer to show." 
"It's time you knew, Cohen," Farley smiled, "I am the dealer." 
Fitzhugh gasped, "Did you hear that? They have Steve and Valerie!" 
Barry gulped, "It must've been a trap set by Inspector Kobick and Lt. Greyson." 
"One of those kids must be helping them," Betty frowned, "That changes our plans." 
Dan corrected, "No, it doesn't. Same plan, different car. Everyone ready?" 
Betty took a position near the suitcase device. Dan, Mark, Barry, and Fitzhugh ran out to a base, then scattered. Dan and Barry met at a half-bat, which was cracked in two, discarded onto the field. Mark and Fitzhugh ran directly to the back of car and hid at the massive tire. Cohen thought he saw movement but ignored it. 
Farley said, "All right, so you can give us the stuff right here. It's weighs so little we can carry loads of it back with us." 
Mark unfastened his backpack and gave Fitzhugh a metal rod, "Hold this." He took out the scope device which they used to see into windows that were very high up. He started to attach the metal rod to it, "Hold it tight now." Mark made Fitzhugh hold the scope while he attached the new piece. 
Betty turned the antenna toward a new direction. She opened her radio, "Dan. Dan. Giant coming from the left. He's almost behind you." 
Dan moved Barry over the bat to hide behind its curve. "Stay down." 
Barry saw the giant, "Dan, it's the boy who had me..." 
"Just stay down!" 
"Phil!" Barry called upward, as quietly as possible. "Phil!" 
"Barry, stop!" Dan ordered. 
Phil looked down at the two of them. Dan was on the other side of the bat, the side closest to Phil, "Run Barry!" 
"No," the boy bent down closer, "No, I won't harm you." 
"Phil, look, Cohen and Farley have two of our friends. Can you get them?" Dan hopped over the bat to Barry. 
"Barry...I...I'll try." Phil stood and walked away. 
Dan looked at Barry, whose eyes followed the giant boy, "That was a stupid move." 
Barry followed Phil's movement, "Do you think he'll help us?" 
"Let us help Mark and Fitzhugh, what do you say?" 
"You don't think he'll help us," Barry figured. 
"Just come on," Dan pulled his arm and they both jumped over the bat and ran through the dirt to the other wheel. At the back tire, Mark and Fitzhugh have set up the scope. Mark sends it up to the top of the tire which was out of their reach. He turns a new knob he put on the scope. The rod goes over to the tire's air nozzle and attaches to the cover. It unscrews it. 
"Dan, the other side," Barry tells him, "The tire is low enough to reach." 
"Yeah," Dan said, grabbed the hatchet and the rope shooter which could launch rope upward fast. Barry followed Dan to the other tire. They are at the back of the car. Dan looked out from under the car and saw Farley, Cohen, and the head of a giant man which stuck out of the car. 
Barry asked, "Clear?" 
"No. It'll be risky but--we have to." 
Quietly and without moving fast, the two walk out to the air nozzle. Dan turned the cover off using the hatchet, then he looked at Barry, "Watch them, Bar, not me." 
"Sorry." 
The four Earthlings at the car were unaware Phil was watching them--he was hiding at the back of the car. 
The man in the car laughed loudly. Betty winced and took off her earphones. "Farley, you are funny. Turn them over to the SID. Those fools?" 
Cohen became very nervous, "Why, we could even do it for you." 
The giant man took hold of Steve and Val and dropped them into a cage of his own. "No, no. You know nothing about their knowledge. They know our future. They can make it happen. Weapons, new drug mixtures, spaceships. Why there is no end to what they can tell us. We can soon rule this country, eventually with their power the planet." 
Val smirked, "And I suppose after that you'll want to fly to Earth and make a stab at the universe to rule all that too!" 
The man laughed again, "Not right away." 
"Just how are you going to make us tell you all this?" Steve grew mad. 
"We have ways. Don't we Farley?" 
"I don't care who is hurt. They're yours. Just let me have my stuff to sell." 
Dan held the hatchet into the metal nozzle of the tire, letting the air out. "There. This car isn't going anywhere." 
"What about the front tires?" Barry looked to the front. 
"No need," he answered and ran to Mark, "Done?" 
"Done," Mark lowered the scope device down, "Now we..." He saw Phil's huge sneakers, "Giant!" 
Barry noticed, "It's all right. He's with us." 
Dan put a hand on Mark's shoulder, "He's going to help us--I hope." 
"I don't feel safe here," Fitzhugh came from behind the tire and under the car. 
Betty called in as low a voice as possible, "Dan, two or three cars pulling up. By the sound of it, on the other side of the car, away from the side Mark and Fitz were on." 
Mark nodded and tried to see under the car to the other side, "Kobick." 
Farley put three bags of white powder in his jacket. Cohen eyed the cage on the man's lap as the man sat back down into the car's front seat. Another voice from inside the dark car said, "Hey, does this car feel kind of low to you?" 
"Yes, it's the weight of these two," the man in the front laughed. 
"Oh, what a riot," Val quipped, "Bring on the real torture, please." 
"No, I mean it. It doesn't feel right." 
"Oh, I'll check the tires." The man, who wore a business suit, stood out of the car, still holding the cage. 
"RUN! RUN!" Dan saw this man's feet on the other side. The four ran from that direction. At a base, Dan pointed, "Okay, get to the bat." 
Phil saw his chance. He eyed the cage and dashed out. He easily managed to snatch it from the man's hand. Val and Steve fell. Phil ran for his life past third base. The man took out a gun but Cohen grabbed his arm, "You'll have every pig in the area here!" 
"Silencer," the man explained. He pulled away and aimed as Phil ran. "I see him perfectly." He started to pull the trigger when Cohen grabbed his arm again and moved it away from the aim. 
Phil, running, tripped over a rock and fell. The cage flew up into the air with Valerie yelling for her life. And who could blame her? It started downward but Phil saw it and jumped up with his hands out and he caught it. Placing it down, he opened the cage door, "Go, get out." 
Steve held Val's arm, "Dizzy?" 
"No," she almost passed out and fell. 
Steve held her around the waist, "Come on." 
Val looked up at the boy, "Thanks---whoever you are." 
"No time to explain," Phil told them, "You must run and get out of here as fast as you can." 
Val and Steve tried to run but they had trouble. Betty heard all this on the sound detector of the device. She picked up her radio, "Dan, they're free. They're okay." 
"They are but these kids aren't." 
"It's their own fault," Fitzhugh scolds. 
The giant pushed Cohen onto the ground, "Now for you--then I'll get that other thieving punk." 
"Kobick, where are you?" Mark panted. 
Cohen stood brazenly, "You better not. The police are here." 
The man aimed but then turned all around to look, mockingly saying, "Where? Where?" 
Cohen pushed the man and ran off. The man took aim at Cohen's back. Farley yelled, "Don't. I'll get him!" 
Cohen kicked up dirt as he ran past the four Earth humans at the half-bat. Dan looked, "Farley!" The dealer ran at them, blindly. "Help me move it." Mark, Barry, and Fitzhugh slide the bat in front of the running boy--with Dan directing. Dan saw the giant approaching fast and he knew the bat and boy would collide. Then the boy would fall--most likely onto their present spot. 
This is what happened. Dan saw him cascade down at them. "Scatter! Get clear!" 
Farley ran onto it and tripped as Phil before him. Cohen ran clear but Phil grabbed him. "What's going on?" 
"I just saved your life. Now let's get out of here." The pair fled. 
Farley recovered and went back to the car. The man was angry, "You fool. I'm going to..." he raised his gun to the boy's head. 
"No!" 
Betty listened as Steve and Valerie joined her, "Crazy maniac isn't he? He can't wait to kill a kid." 
"The others? Where are the others?" Steve had one concern now: getting all his people out of here safely. 
"Hey, the police are coming!" The other voice yelled out. 
The man pushed Farley away and jumped into the car, "Let's get lost!" 
At the radio device, Dan, Mark, Barry and Fitzhugh were greeted by Valerie and Steve. They calmed down the happy reunion and listened. Mark smiled as they listened, "Boy, does that guy have a surprise coming." 
They heard the tires screech on the front but the back tires weren't moving. By now, Kobick, Greyson, and men surrounded the car with spotlights and guns. Greyson held Farley. 
"They were going to kill me." 
Greyson took out the white powder bags from Farley's coat, "Weren't you going to do the same to other kids? Huh, son?" 
Kobick used a megaphone and yelled, "Come out with your hands up and your guns down." 
Val mocked him, "Just like Kobick to say something cliche." 
The tires stopped screeching and the car fell to silence except for one voice. 
"I told you we had a flat." 
The seven Earth people laughed. 
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Epilogue<br> 
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Barry stood on a high rock surrounded by long ferns near a thick tree. He stared up at the brilliant sky full of bright stars. He was so involved in it that he didn't notice Steve climbed up behind him. "What're you thinking about?" 
"Oh, back home. How similar people are." 
Steve watched the boy rather than the stars Barry still stuck his eyes to, "Yes." 
"You know, they do have a choice Steve." 
"Sure they do but sometimes, they're lead astray by evil things," Steve added, "Look at Phil, deep down he knew what he was doing was wrong and he finally took a stand against it. Maybe it was what you said to him." 
"What will happen to him?" 
"I heard Kobick say he was going to be rehabilitated of his own free will. He just walked into a police station and said he needed help. Farley, well, he's a different story." 
"You know, I just keep thinking of how many others there are that allow their lives to just wither away." 
"Well, Barry," Steve began to watch the stars in the sky, too, "...you can't let the ones that are lost drag you down, too. If you do, you'll end up not much better off than they. All you have to do is think about the ones that are saved. Think of them." 
Steve patted Barry's shoulder and left his arm around the boy's back, "Sure is nice up there." 
Barry smiled and looked at him, "It is but...it's getting nicer and nicer here, too." 
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The End<br>
LAND OF THE GIANTS<br> 
The Danger of School <br>
by charles mento <br>
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