Tales from Adventureland the Doomsday Device Read online

  Written by Jason Lethcoe

  Illustrations by Jeff Clark, Jillian Clark, and Denise Shimabukuro

  Cover paint by Grace Lee

  Copyright © 2018 Disney Enterprises, Inc.

  All rights reserved. Published by Disney Press, an imprint of Disney Book Group. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. For information address Disney Press, 1200 Grand Central Avenue, Glendale, California 91201.

  ISBN 978-1-368-02773-1

  For more Disney Press fun, visit www.disneybooks.com

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter One: A Narrow Escape

  Chapter Two: Dispatching the Monster

  Chapter Three: Ned’s Mansion

  Chapter Four: Finding Crumb

  Chapter Five: A Rocky Start

  Chapter Six: Juju

  Chapter Seven: Trapped!

  Chapter Eight: Mutiny

  Chapter Nine: Carnivorous Vines

  Chapter Ten: Birds and Beasts

  Chapter Eleven: Rusty

  Chapter Twelve: Betty and Dotty

  Chapter Thirteen: The Potentate’s Army

  Chapter Fourteen: The Temple Ruins

  Chapter Fifteen: Bungalow Bob

  Chapter Sixteen: The Maze

  Chapter Seventeen: The Scorpupine

  Chapter Eighteen: Ned’s Reason

  Chapter Nineteen: The Plan

  Chapter Twenty: Roots

  Chapter Twenty-One: The Three Spirits

  Chapter Twenty-Two: The Great Artifact War

  Chapter Twenty-Three: Endings and Beginnings

  This one is for Alex.

  Andy Stanley ducked sideways as the mummy’s rotten fingers slashed at his face, barely missing his cheek. The creature let out a frustrated howl that sent chills up and down his spine.

  “No you don’t. Not today!” Andy quipped, trying to sound braver than he felt. He thrust his hand deep into his pocket for his Zoomwriter, anxious to show this monster that he was capable of defending himself.

  But his trembling fingers came up empty.

  Where’d it go? he thought desperately.

  The lumbering creature aimed another swipe at Andy’s head.

  Once again, Andy ducked at the last possible moment and stumbled out of the way. His eyes darted around the torchlit burial chamber, anxious to find some kind of an exit. Spotting a low tunnel entrance just behind a stone table, Andy leapt toward it.

  As he ran, he patted his leather jacket’s pockets, frantically hoping to discover the comforting shape of his fountain pen hidden somewhere inside.

  But once again, he came up empty.

  “Nuts!” he growled as he approached a low chamber door. He could sense the mummy behind him now, the shuffling of its bandaged feet moving ominously closer and much faster than he’d have ever thought possible.

  Andy crawled through the small cobwebbed opening on his hands and knees. The entry opened up to a dark tunnel with just enough headroom for him to stand, but also with no end in sight.

  Andy didn’t have time to consider what traps or dangers might be lurking in the darkness beyond. He knew that under normal circumstances, Jungle Explorers’ Society protocol would have recommended that the member always move as slowly and carefully as possible when exploring a darkened, unknown passageway.

  Especially in an Egyptian pyramid where the builders used magical curses to keep grave robbers from disturbing the dead.

  But he was so desperate to escape the mummy’s clutches that he hurried somewhat carelessly along in the darkness, trying his best to stay on the lookout for any traps. As he went, he slid one hand against the rough-hewn wall to help guide him along the passageway.

  Andy kept his gaze fixed ahead, hoping with each twist and turn of the tunnel that perhaps there would be daylight just around the corner. But at every turn all he encountered was more darkness.

  There’s got to be a way out of here.

  It seemed like the inside of the pyramid was a maze that would go on forever!

  But when his outstretched palm finally bumped into a rough wall at the end of the dark passageway, he leapt back in surprise. After all the twists and turns he’d been through, his way was blocked.

  A dead end! No! It can’t be!

  But it was.

  And Andy could hardly believe his bad luck!

  He ran his hands frantically up and down the wall, hoping to locate some kind of lever or latch that had been installed by the builders, some kind of a secret way to escape. It all had to be done by feel, because he could barely see anything at all.

  Come on, come on! There’s got to be some way out!

  Andy could hear the mummy now, each of its bandaged feet making the sound of a slip as it slid over the rocky floor and then a thump as it made a footfall.

  Slip…thump…slip…thump… on and on it came, gaining speed as it lurched toward him from down the passageway that he’d just come from.

  He shuddered as he thought back to the decision he had made to enter the pyramid first, hoping to impress the other members of the Jungle Explorers’ Society with his courage.

  But that decision had backfired spectacularly, with Andy promptly falling down a hidden trapdoor and sliding directly into the mummy’s chamber. After hitting the dusty floor, he’d nearly wet his pants with fright when the monster had risen from its sarcophagus, turned its glowing, pale eyes on him, and let out its terrible scream.

  And here he was now, in a terrible predicament that he’d never thought possible. He was trapped in a dead end, and if he couldn’t find a way out, he was about to become lunch for a two-thousand-year-old pharaoh.

  This can’t be happening!

  After desperately probing along the very bottom edge of the wall, his fingers finally brushed over a small recess. Feeling eagerly around with his fingertips, Andy found something that felt like a rough stone lever.

  “Yes!” he cried, unable to contain his excitement. The builders had indeed designed the blocked passage as a false wall, something to trap anyone who didn’t belong there or know its secret. Because of Andy’s recent experiences with the Jungle Explorers’ Society, he’d learned that most traps had a solution if a person was willing to look hard enough.

  Andy gripped the lever and twisted hard.

  Moments later, there was a cracking noise, as if the very bricks of the Great Pyramid itself were breaking apart.

  Andy watched with anticipation as a rectangle made up of lines of light appeared between several of the stones, and then, with a loud groan, a newly revealed door swung inward with a loud, echoing WHOOSH!

  And then, as if on cue, he heard the mummy roar from somewhere behind him.

  Andy didn’t waste a second. He dashed inside the newly revealed opening, then turned around and threw his shoulder against the door to close it, pushing as hard as he could.

  The mummy was so close now that Andy could see it lurching toward him, no more than a few yards away with its long, rotten arm outstretched and its fingers twisted into a hungry, grasping claw.

  Then, just as the withered hand was about to shove through the last crack in the doorway, Andy managed, with a final heave, to slam the rotating door shut.

  BOOM!

  The sound of its closing shook the entire chamber. Andy breathed a shaky sigh. Whew! That was scary!

  He wiped his hand across his sweaty brow, and as he did, something fell from his sleeve
and plunked onto the floor.

  His Zoomwriter.

  With a mixture of frustration and relief, Andy bent down to pick it up. How it had ended up in his sleeve, he had no idea. Perhaps when he’d put on his coat that morning it had fallen out of an inside pocket?

  “Could have used you back there, old friend,” Andy murmured as he put it safely into his front pants pocket. No more trusting his jacket!

  The passage behind the door was lit with flickering light, indicating that torches were probably nearby. Then he heard the most welcome sound he could imagine. There were voices in the distance, familiar voices that he recognized!

  He’d found his way back!

  Kungaloosh!

  Andy’s pulse hammered in his ears as he rushed down the passage, anxious to be reunited with his friends. He could imagine how concerned they must have been when he’d disappeared down the trapdoor.

  “Andy!” shouted Rusty Bucketts when he saw the boy emerge from around a corner. The big bush pilot rushed forward, excitedly clapping Andy on the shoulder with a bone-jarring thump of his meaty, big-knuckled hand.

  Andy grinned, then winced and rubbed the impacted spot. “A handshake would have been fine,” he mumbled. Sometimes—most of the time—Rusty didn’t know his own strength.

  As the group of Jungle Explorers’ Society members pressed around him, Andy felt a renewed sense of relief just at seeing them again.

  Betty and Dotty, the conjoined twins who were deadly assassins, beamed at him and kissed him simultaneously on both cheeks. Abigail Awol, the daughter of Albert Awol, flashed her beautiful ruby-lipped smile and gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder. (Thankfully, it was the one Rusty hadn’t crushed.)

  Andy quickly recapped what he’d been through with the mummy, and everyone responded with the appropriate amount of astonishment at his harrowing ordeal.

  “Always hated mummies,” said Rusty. “Dead things that move around give me the creeps. Give me a ferocious tiger or a man-eating python any day of the week. Much easier to fight.”

  He raised his glittering hook for emphasis. He’d acquired it after losing a battle with a terrible many-toothed creature called the Dingonek.

  Andy couldn’t have agreed more. Supernatural things like ghosts, zombies, and mummies gave him the willies, too!

  “You’d better watch yourself, or there won’t be enough of you left for even tigers and snakes to eat,” said Dotty.

  “Yes,” agreed Betty. “You’ve already lost an eye and a hand. Next time it might be your head, Mr. Bucketts.”

  “I assume that you’re referring to this?” Rusty said icily, indicating his hook with a wave. Then his expression changed as he grinned at his shiny appendage. “Actually, I prefer this excellent hook to my old hand.…Much more useful. Plus, I’ve added a couple of modifications of my own,” he added with a sly wink at Andy.

  “We’d better get moving,” said Abigail nervously. She raised her torch in the direction of the tunnel ahead. “Knowing that there are mummies roaming about in here tells me that the sooner we get what we came for and get out, the better.”

  Everyone agreed. Ned Lostmore, Andy’s grandfather, had sent them to retrieve an ancient document, one that their enemies intended to use for nefarious purposes. Andy knew that time was of the essence, for the Potentate, the leader of the Collective, would stop at nothing to get what she wanted.

  The group moved slowly down the tunnel, carefully avoiding hidden traps like the one Andy had fallen through by edging single file along the rough-hewn walls.

  Finally, after about an hour of traversing the long sloping path, the group rounded a corner that opened up into the most impressive chamber Andy had yet seen.

  Andy gawked at the impressive sight.

  Another ornately designed sarcophagus, this one much bigger and more majestic than the one that had contained the mummy Andy had encountered earlier, was positioned in the center of the floor.

  Massive, carved pillars covered with hieroglyphic symbols stretched to the ceiling on either side of the stone coffin.

  But what startled Andy even more was the fact that the chamber was already lit with flickering torches. There was also a large, ragged hole in the wall, indicating that someone had tunneled into the chamber without regard for the Great Pyramid’s history or cultural significance.

  And that could mean only one thing. There was only one other group that would be here, and they couldn’t care less about the preservation of history or the protection of ancient artifacts.

  “They’ve beaten us to it!” Andy exclaimed. A sudden wave of disappointment washed over him. This wasn’t supposed to happen!

  “What?” shouted Rusty Bucketts. The beefy bush pilot shouldered his way to the front of the group. His red handlebar mustache bristled as he scanned the room, noting the torches that had been placed in makeshift holders.

  “Stones and scarabs!” he swore. “This is bad.”

  Andy couldn’t have agreed more. With a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, he knew that they’d suffered a tremendous setback.

  Feeling numb, Andy walked over to the sarcophagus and peered inside. The heavy lid had been unlocked and pushed aside. The interior of the coffin contained not a mummy, but a small marble box.

  And the box, to Andy’s dismay, was open.

  “The ancient scroll is gone,” Andy said. He wanted to add and all our hopes with it, but he controlled his tongue. Instead he turned to the others and said, “Now what do we do?”

  Everyone stood in silence for a long moment, exchanging worried glances. The page was from the lost Library of Alexandria, a treasured scroll that had incredibly powerful secrets written upon it. It was irreplaceable.

  “Not to worry,” Rusty said. “We’ll get it back.”

  In dire circumstances, Rusty usually shared Andy’s grandfather’s gift for optimism. Andy wished he’d inherited that trait from Ned, but he often had a hard time seeing the bright side. The Collective and their leader, the mysterious woman known only as the Potentate, seemed to thwart them at every turn.

  Andy was about to express his concerns when a strange, shuffling noise in a shadowy corner of the room stopped him short.

  Oh no… Andy thought. The hairs on his arms and neck stood up. He knew that sound!

  “What was that?” Betty and Dotty asked in unison, turning toward the unexpected noise.

  Andy noticed a large shadow creep across the wall.

  “We’re not alone,” Rusty said ominously.

  Andy tried to steady his wobbly knees when he spotted the thing that emerged from the shadows.

  “Mummy!” Andy shouted.

  “She’s not here, son!” growled Rusty. “You’re in the Society now. Show a little backbone—”

  “It found us!” Andy cried.

  Then the big pilot noticed where Andy’s shaking finger was pointing and his eyes grew wide.

  Andy was glad that this time he wasn’t alone and had his friends with him. He had no idea how the creature had managed it, but it evidently knew ways around the dead end Andy had left it in and had followed him to this chamber.

  The very sight of the thing with its rotten flesh and pale eyes made Andy shiver with fright.

  “Everyone get back!” Rusty roared as he pulled his famous sling from his pocket. With a pop, the steel ball bearing that took the place of his missing eyeball was in his hand. Seconds later, he’d placed the rubber sling on his hook, creating a slingshot. Then the weapon was loaded and aimed directly at the looming creature that lurched toward them with its hungry, glowing eyes and its terrible claws.

  “Not another step, you!” called Rusty.

  But if Rusty Bucketts had thought the undead thing would be intimidated by his bravado, he’d guessed wrong. From somewhere beneath the tattered wrapping, a mouth filled with rotten teeth let out a terrible, anguished scream.

  And the scream was quickly echoed by a chorus of others.

  Andy grabbed his Zoomwriter, but be
fore he could fire the atomic pulse that it contained, Rusty Bucketts let out a bellow of rage. He watched as the pilot drew back and fired the ball bearing directly at the monster.

  The bush pilot was an expert marksman, and the metal eyeball flew exactly where he’d aimed.

  At first Andy thought that he’d missed and watched with mounting anxiety as the ball flew wide of the stumbling creature. But when the steel ball hit one of the torches that had been placed in a wall sconce by their enemies, he saw the genius of Rusty’s shot.

  The torch exploded in a shower of sparks and flame, sending burning embers showering down on the mummy. The ancient wrappings were so old and dry that the rotten cloth caught fire in an instant.

  As flames engulfed the undead creature, a horrible, unearthly scream filled the air. There was a terrible moment as the monster stumbled around the room, waving its flaming arms in an effort to stop the blaze. But the cry was silenced as the fire did its terrible work, leaving nothing in the mummy’s place but a pile of rags and ashes.

  “I thought cursed Egyptian pharaohs rising from the dead were only a myth,” Abigail said shakily.

  “Oh, we’ve seen our fair share of them,” said Dotty ominously. “My sister and I used run into mummies all the time in the Sahara on assassination missions. Desert magic and curses are ever present and quite powerful in this part of the world!”

  “Here, I think you might need this,” said Abigail after spotting the pilot’s “ammo” in the mummy’s ashes. She handed Rusty the ball bearing, and after wiping it on his shirtsleeve, he popped it back into his empty eye socket.

  “We’d better leave,” said Betty. She suddenly looked anxious. “Ned needs to know that the artifact is gone and we’re going to have to come up with a new plan to stop the Collective.”

  As the group made its way back down the sloping tunnel, Andy thought about the implications of the lost scroll.

  If what Ned said is right, then finding that page means the Potentate is one step closer to locating and activating the Doomsday Device. I wonder what’s written on it.

  The group emerged from the Great Pyramid, and Andy hoped and prayed that it wouldn’t be too late to stop the Potentate and her evil plan. He’d seen a picture of the Doomsday Device, a terrible clock that had been made by dark sorcery in the Middle Ages, and he could only imagine what it looked like in real life. His stomach churned with disgust when he thought about the drawing he’d seen that showed how, as the hour hand hit each number, a carving on the clock depicted one terrible plague after another tormenting victims.