35 - A Shocker on Shock Street (9 page)

He carried a clipboard in one hand. He had a silver whistle around his neck.
He smiled at Marty and me and flashed us a thumbs-up.

“Hey, what’s up, guys? I’m Russ Denver. Good job! You looked really scared.”

“Huh?” I cried, my mouth dropping open. “We
were
really scared!”

“I’m so glad to see a real live human!” Marty cried.

“This tour—it’s totally messed up!” I shrieked. “The creatures—they’re
alive! They tried to hurt us! They really did! It wasn’t any fun! It wasn’t like
a ride!” The words spilled out of me in a rush.

“It was really gross! The werewolves snapped at us and chased us up a wall!”
Marty exclaimed.

The two of us started talking at once, telling this guy Denver all of the
frightening things that had happened to us on the tour.

“Whoa! Whoa!” A smile crossed his handsome face. He raised his clipboard as
if to shield himself from us. “It’s all special effects, guys. Didn’t they
explain to you that we’re making a movie here? That we were filming your
reactions?”

“No. No one explained that, Mr. Denver!” I replied angrily. “My dad brought
us here. He designed the studio tour. And he told us we were the first to try it
out. But he didn’t tell us about any movie being filmed. I really think—”

I felt Marty’s hand on my shoulder. I knew Marty was trying to calm me down.
But I didn’t
want
to be calmed down.

I was really angry.

Mr. Denver turned back to a group of crew members behind him in the street.
“Take thirty, guys. Let’s break for dinner.”

They moved away, talking among themselves. Mr. Denver turned back to us.
“Your father should have explained to you—”

“It’s okay. Really,” Marty interrupted. “We just got a little scared. All of
the creatures seemed so real. And we didn’t see any other people anywhere.
You’re the first real person we’ve seen all afternoon.”

“My dad must be really worried,” I told the movie director. “He said he’d be
waiting for us on the main platform. Can you tell us how to get there?”

“No problem,” Mr. Denver replied. “See that big house there with the open
door?” He pointed with his clipboard.

Marty and I stared at the house across the street. A narrow path led up to
the house. A pale yellow light shone inside the open front door.

“That’s Shockro’s House of Shocks,” the director explained. “Go right in that
door and straight through the house.”

“But won’t we get shocked in there?” Marty demanded. “In the movie, anyone
who goes into Shockro’s house gets jolted with twenty million volts of
electricity!”

“That’s just in the movie,” Mr. Denver replied.

“The house is just a set. It’s perfectly safe. Go through the house. Then out
the back, and you will see the main building on the other side of the street.
You can’t miss it.”

“Thank you!” Marty and I called out at once.

Marty turned and started running full speed toward the house.

I turned back to Mr. Denver. “I’m sorry for yelling before,” I told him. “I
was just so scared, and I thought—”

I gasped.

Mr. Denver had turned away. And I saw the long power cord—the power cord
that was plugged into his back.

He wasn’t a real human. He wasn’t a movie director. He was some kind of
robot.

He was fake like all the others. He was lying to us. Lying!

I turned and cupped my hands around my mouth. I started to run, frantically
calling after Marty: “Don’t go in there! Marty—stop! Don’t go in that house!”

Too late.

Marty was already running through the door.

“Marty—wait! Stop!” I shouted as I ran.

I had to stop him.

The director was a fake. I knew he wasn’t telling the truth.

“Marty—
please
!”

My bare feet pounded the hard pavement. I plunged up the path as Marty
trotted into the doorway.

“Stop!”

I flew to the doorway. Reached out both hands. Made a wild dive to tackle
him.

And missed.

I skidded across the walk on my stomach.

As soon as Marty entered the house, I saw the flash of white light. I heard a
loud buzz. Then the sharp crackle of electricity.

The room exploded in a flash of lightning. So bright I had to shield my eyes.

When I opened them, I saw Marty sprawled facedown on the floor. “Nooooo!” I let out a terrified wail.

Scrambling to my feet, I dove into the house.

Would I get shocked, too?

I didn’t care. I had to get to Marty. I had to help him out of there.

“Marty! Marty!” I screamed his name again and again.

He didn’t move.

“Marty—please!” I grabbed his shoulders and started to shake him. “Wake up,
Marty! Snap out of it! Marty!”

He didn’t open his eyes.

I suddenly felt a chill. A dark shadow slid over me.

And I realized I wasn’t alone in the house.

I spun around with a gasp.

Was it Shockro? Some other scary creature?

A tall figure leaned over me. I squinted into the darkness, struggling to see
his face.

“Dad!” I cried as he came into focus. “Dad! Oh, I’m so glad to see you!”

“Erin, what are you doing here?” he asked in a low voice.

“It—it’s Marty!” I stammered. “You’ve got to help him, Dad. He’s been
shocked and he—he—”

Dad leaned closer. Behind his eyeglasses, his brown eyes were cold. His face
set in a troubled frown.

“
Do
something, Dad!” I pleaded. “Marty is hurt. He isn’t moving. He won’t
open his eyes. The studio tour was so
awful,
Dad! Something is wrong.
Something is
terribly
wrong!”

He didn’t reply. He leaned closer.

And as his face came into the soft light, I saw that he wasn’t my father!

“Who
are
you?” I shrieked. “You’re not my dad! Why aren’t you helping
me? Why aren’t you helping Marty? Do something—please! Where’s my dad? Where
is
he? Who
are
you? Help me! Somebody? Help me AAAAAARRRRRRRRR.
Help MRRRRRRRRRRRR. Dad—MARRRRRRRRRRRRRR. DRRRMMMMMMMMmmmmm.”

Mr. Wright stood staring down at Erin and Marty. He shook his head unhappily.
He shut his eyes and let out a long sigh.

Jared Curtis, one of the studio engineers, came running into The House of
Shocks. “Mr. Wright, what happened to your two kid robots?” he demanded.

Mr. Wright sighed again. “Programming problems,” he muttered.

He pointed to the Erin robot, frozen in place on her knees beside the Marty
robot. “I had to shut the girl off. Her memory chip must be bad. The Erin robot
was supposed to think of me as her father. But just now, she didn’t recognize
me.”

“And what about the Marty robot?” Jared asked.

“It’s totally down,” Mr. Wright replied. “I think the electrical system
shorted out.”

“What a shame,” Jared said, bending to roll the Marty robot over. He pulled
up the T-shirt and fiddled with some dials on the back. “Hey, Mr. Wright, it was a great idea to
make robot kids to test the park. I think we can fix them.”

Jared opened up a panel on Marty’s back and squinted at the red and green
wires. “All the other creatures, and monsters, and robots worked perfectly. Not
a single bug.”

“I should have known there was a problem yesterday,” Mr. Wright said. “We
were in my office. The Erin robot asked about her mother. I built her. She
doesn’t have a mother.”

Mr. Wright tossed up his hands. “Oh, well. No problem. We’ll reprogram these
two. Put in new chips. They’ll be good as new in no time. Then we’ll try them
out once again on the Shocker Studio Tour, before we open the park to real
kids.”

He took the Marty robot from Jared and slung it over his shoulder. Then he
picked up the Erin robot. He tossed it over his other shoulder. Then, humming to
himself, he carried them to the engineering building.

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