It was a beautiful sunny day at the beach. The temperature was perfect with a slight breeze that kept my skin dry and refreshed. The sun was just hot enough to warm your body just enough not to sweat. My brother Max and my pops were also there with me enjoying the incredible weather.

I started taking notice on the tide that seemed to be rising at extraordinary speeds. I saw our pile of clothes and a backpack that was going to need to be moved away before the might ocean took it prisoner. As I started walking towards it I felt a strong gust of wind that almost knocked me over. I looked over to the ocean and froze in terror. A large wave was coming in at an incredible speed headed right for us.

All around people started running away screaming. I looked over at my brother and my dad and saw them leaving without me. I ran to get our stuff and felt upset that it was me that had been made responsible for it. I snatched it as quickly as I could and started running. A few hundred yards past the beach was a red brick building with small rooms and large windows. I ran inside and noticed that it was no longer water that was rushing towards me but sand! Tons of sand was rushing in under the doors and was quickly filling the building. I looked for an easy way our but decided that jumping through the large glass window was my best option.  I took a few steps back, put my arms up to shield my face and dove right through it. To my surprise I had not received and major cuts.

Once out of the building I kept running. I ran past some rock cliffs and found people hiding in an small indent part of the rock. I jumped up with them and waited. There were about 5 of us just waiting, we could hear a roar in the distance as the water approached. But with the water came something unimaginable. Some metallic horseshoe crab resembling creatures were flying around in the air, they had an arsenal of troops, helicopters and round flying saucers. They had no wings and seemed to just float around us looking very threatening. We were all shocked and even more terrified when water started rushing in around us leaving us with nowhere to go but down in the water. We could see right through the clear water and were terrified to see hundreds of those metallic monsters just waiting for the water to fill up the earth. The water rose and rose and I came to the conclusion that these creatures had flooded the earth and come to kill us all and surrendered.

THE END

I was stressing about whether or not I had remembered to bring my camera on my voyage today. It was going to be a beautiful day and my excitement to see the massive waterfalls and incredible vistas was making it hard to compose myself.

The road ahead was increasing in elevation and beauty. After a very long couple of minutes our bus rested to a stop on the side of the road. I started rushing to get by the crowd to get some peace and quiet. As I’m wondering around walking towards the edge of this massive valley my senses start to pick up on every little detail. The scent of the trees and mist of the waterfalls, the fresh breeze and gentle sunshine on my skin all put me a in a daze and instantly get me reaching for my camera. I pull it out of my backpack with such excitement that I nearly lose it over the valley. I juggle it a few times and finally grasp well enough to get the terrified feeling out of my stomach that I would have nothing to remember this by.

I focus my eyes back on the valley and waterfall ahead. I lose my focus when I realize that straight ahead on the other side of the valley is a giant stone statue. The status looked like a massive gingerbread man carved in stone. It had an angry robotic looking face and I instantly felt nervous. I started wondering if I had ever heard of such a statue and starred hard at it. A few moments later, I glanced into its eyes and then relaxed my look thinking the statue started moving from starring too hard. My mouth dropped open and I started looking around for anyone to confirm what I saw. I looked back and the statue was running full speed ahead and leap across the entire valley! My stomach dropped and my legs froze. When I finally realized a massive angry stone gingerbread man was running full speed at me, I turned and started running.

I realized I didn’t have long as his strides were half a mile long. I ran to the only building around, a  massive barn that had several stories to it. I got inside just before the stone man reached me. I hid inside behind the walls terrified wondering what he would do. All of a sudden I feel a massive shake and half the barn rips apart. The stone man had ripped through the barn leveling most of it in just a few seconds. I ran for cover under whatever pieces of the barn were left.

I felt safe for a few seconds and tried to keep my composure. Then all of a sudden a massive stone arm came swinging at me. I dove just in time to escape being swatted like a persistent fly and ran to another piece left of the barn. I was playing a life and death version of hide and go seek and nearly lost my life to his vicious stone arms. I hid behind the only other piece to the barn took out my camera. I peek around the side and snapped a shot at him. I feared that he had seen me so I ducked back behind the wall and waited. Nothing was happening, I could not heard his steps. I came out from behind what was left of a wall and noticed he was gone. I looked to the other side of the valley and there he was. Except he was not moving, and the angry look on his face had disappeared. It was all over.

THE END

A few of my friends and I find ourselves floating blindly in a humongous cruise ship. With no one on board but ourselves, I can feel my stomach squeezing recognizing that we are lost and alone. As we stare out of the decks main window into the vast fog covered ocean, a sudden image begins to appear… an ISLAND!

Our giant boat comes to an expected smooth stop onto the desert island beach and docks us all. We begin walking into the forest covered land and I immediately begin thinking about feeding ourselves. As we continue into the unknown forest, I come upon a massive hippo and decide to take my chances. I hurl a spear that I happened to have at the perfect moment and cheer as the massive beast falls to the ground. My excitement for having provided food for us is soon interrupted by a worry in my stomach. I’m worried that if I start killing every hippo I come across, the hippos will become extinct and we’d run out of food.

I raise my eyes to the site of a giant tree, so big that I feel like a pebble in front of it. It was cracked open and empty in the middle, all that remained was a moss covered outer layer of bark that made you wonder how it could withstand to be so huge. As I’m looking at this tree I notice a bright green bean like module implanted into the moss. I squint enough to realize what it is. It’s a cocoon! A cocoon in the shape of a hippo! That’s when I realized that hippos may not be going extinct after all. As I dissipate my focus on this cocoon, I drift my eyes further up the tree. I find another, and another and dozens of cocooned hippos all inside this tree. I am filled by a strong, sensational feeling of longevity and excitement.

Moments later I find myself back in the docked cruise ship with my friends. We are standing on a balcony observing what we can about our new environment from our impressive top story view. I notice a large cream colored stone wall bordering the top of the island as if it was blocking something from coming in. I point this out to my friends and also mention to them my unique ability to fly by flapping my arms up and down. I climb onto the balcony ledge and start flapping my arms. I begin to levitate and gather enough momentum to fly without much effort. I fly long and hard to reach this wall and as I look down to the now not so giant cruise ship my eyes open wide in shock. This was no ordinary island, it was a zoo! I could see other parts of the island were animal exhibits and that we had simply landed in the hippo exhibit. I realized the surrounding wall was not to prevent things from coming in but to prevent them from going out!

Moments later I find myself back in the cruise  ship with my friends, we are running from room to room, level to level trying to find our key. These were not ordinary keys but seemed to hold some extraordinary value. I find mine first and head to the elevator knowing my friends are not far behind. I rush to the door, insert my key and exit. My friends soon follow behind.

THE END