Sean grabbed her arm. “No, it’s too dangerous! Dad’s a Zoner. He’ll do okay.”
“Keep down,” said Liz. “If Gigantopus sees us, he’ll come for us, too!”
KEEE—RUNNNNNNNCH! The roof of the studio nearly collapsed under the huge weight.
Just then they saw a low swirl of dust escaping up the road in front of the studio. It was Mr. Vickers, pedaling away on a very small bicycle, his camera still on his shoulder.
“My bike!” called Mike, jumping up and down. “It’s way too small for him!”
“Shhhh!” urged Liz, ducking behind the dune.
YEEEOOOWWW! Gigantopus uttered a sudden unearthly roar. He turned. His large red eyes flashed and his suction cups twitched as he spotted the five kids. He snapped his tentacles angrily at them.
“Sorry,” said Mike. “I guess I yelled too loud.”
WHAM! WHAM! The ground shuddered under Gigantopus’s thumping tentacles.
“Maybe now would be a good time for us to escape!” Jeff added quickly.
Mike scrambled across the sand. “Hey, I thought you said he wouldn’t come here. The first law of Humongous movies and all that!”
“I guess Gigantopus didn’t read the script,” said Sean.
The beast, who didn’t read the script, suddenly flexed his eight powerful thirty-foot tentacles. He was a blur of oozy suction pads, green leathery skin, and razor-sharp teeth as he slithered across the ground toward the kids.
“The sand!” yelled Jeff. “I can’t run that fast!”
Within seconds the beast was there.
“We’re octopus food!” cried Mike. “Doomed!”
Then, just as the beast was within striking distance of the five friends, its giant-domed head turned. The creature stopped, twirled its tentacles, and pushed off into the open desert.
“Yahoo!” said Sean. “He’s going away! Roll the credits. Turn up the lights. Clear the theater. Shut off the popcorn machine. Get the—”
“Whaaa-ungh!” Holly suddenly went down like a sack of heavy fish.
“Holly?” said Sean. “You don’t have to hide. The octopus is gone now.”
“I’m not hiding!” she said. “I slipped.” She found herself eye level with a pool of shiny stuff. “Whoa, what is this gunk?” Holly stared at the ground. “That creepy octopus left something slimy!”
Sean stooped. “Gloop,” he said helpfully.
“Smells pretty fishy,” said Mike, stooping, too.
Holly looked back across the sand. “Yeah, well, whatever it is, Gigantopus is leaving a trail of the fishy gloop. And it starts at the studio.”
“Uh-oh!” cried Sean, pointing to a swirl of dust in the desert. “He’s turning around again!”
Gigantopus whirled in the sand, his powerful tentacles still dripping gloop, and he headed north.
Toward town.
Toward the center of Grover’s Mill!
“Hurry!” yelled Holly. “We have to warn everyone!”
4
Grabbing a Bite!
When the five friends hit the bottom of Main Street, Grover’s Mill was quiet. Very quiet.
Streets were deserted. Cars were abandoned with their engines running. House doors and shop doors were wide open. Bicycles were left on the sidewalk, their wheels spinning slowly.
“Uh-oh, everyone’s dead,” whispered Mike.
“Mike,” said Liz. “Have a little hope, okay?”
Mike was quiet for a second. “Okay, I hope everyone’s not dead. But I think they are.”
Bong! The sound of the Double Dunk Donut Den chimed its hour. The chime echoed eerily up and down the empty streets of Grover’s Mill.
Sssss! The oversize pancake clock high atop Usher’s House of Pancakes hissed the hour.
“Gigantopus has scared everyone,” mumbled Holly as they tiptoed up the wide main road. “What’s the deal with this octopus?”
“Well, if this were a movie,” said Jeff, “the title would probably tell you what’s going on.”
“Huh?” said Holly, peering up and down the street for signs of life. Or signs of tentacles.
“You know,” Jeff went on. “Like when a movie starts with kids playing around, and it’s all jokey and funny, but the title of the movie is The Giant Squid Beast from Planet Ten. You just know that a giant squid beast is going to come pretty soon.”
Holly looked at Jeff. She wasn’t sure if all that was helpful, but she gave him a smile anyway. “Thanks, Jeff,” she said.
Suddenly, out of the distance, came a sound. A motor scooter puttered down the road. In the seat was a very wide, round man. Sitting behind him was another very wide, round man.
“The Double Dunk twins!” shouted Mike.
Yes, and they were singing.
Double Dunk twins is our name,
Twins we are, but not the same.
People love us, that’s no shame.
’Cause our donuts bring us fame!
Holly dashed into the street. “Stop! A giant octopus is attacking Grover’s Mill!”
Rob Dunk frowned. “We can’t stop delivering.”
His brother Bob, arms full of brown and white boxes, nodded. “Our donuts must keep rolling!”
Putt-putt! In a second, the twins were gone.
A dusty wind blew up the empty street.
“This is creeping me out,” said Liz. “I’m going to go and check my mom’s diner. I’ve got to see if she’s okay. Anybody coming with me?”
Mike looked over at Jeff. “Could be our last chance to get some food before the end.”
“Egg salad would be cool,” said Jeff. He joined Mike and Liz as they headed to Duffey’s Diner.
Holly sat down on the sidewalk. “Sean, this is too weird for words. Even for The Weird Zone.”
Sean watched their friends go into the diner, come out again, then cross the street to School Road. “Sometimes I think the only way we’ll ever get out of here is if Grover’s Mill moves.”
Holly smiled. “It could be on the other side of the galaxy, and it would still be weird.” She looked up at him. “Do you think Gigantopus will be the thing that really gets us?”
“Maybe,” said Sean. “But maybe we can stop it. In fact, I think we have to.”
Holly knew what he meant. It meant he would do what had to be done. It also meant Sean was scared. Maybe as scared as she was.
“Guys!” Liz came trotting back nearly out of breath. “Everyone is hiding at school. In the secret teachers’ shelter deep in the basement.”
“Yeah,” said Mike, huffing behind her. “Can you believe it?”
Holly shook her head. “So it’s just up to us.”
Jeff trotted back from across the street. “The Acme truck! It’s over there!” He pointed to the Baits Motel’s parking lot.
Instantly, something clicked in Holly’s brain. “Of course!” she cried. “The lady! She’s behind all this. She dropped off the Slither-Matic for Dad. I knew there was something strange about her. If we find her, we find our answers!”
But as Holly ran with her friends up to the front doors of the Baits Motel, she wasn’t even sure what questions to ask.
WHAM! The motel doors burst open and a whirl of green suit and red hair leaped out!
“It’s her!” cried Holly. “Grab her so she—”
But before Holly could finish, Castor Roddenreel, manager of the motel, came storming out. “Stop that lady!” he called out. “She stayed here, then she ran off with the gill!”
“You mean the bill?” asked Holly.
“No, I mean the gill!” the man answered. He pointed to a gaping hole in the top of the motel.
The five kids tore after the lady. Holly was sure that the woman was behind this whole octopus monster attack. They needed to catch her!
“Miss Smith! Miss Jones!” yelled Holly. “Call off your octopus! He’s wrecking our town!”
The lady jerked around at Holly. “AWWK!” she blurted out. Then she leaped into the truck.
“Stop!” Holly started after the woman, but she slipped in another puddle of slime. “Oh, man!” she cried.
Errk—the truck swerved out of the lot and onto Main Street.
“Gigantopus!” cried the lady, pointing up. “Finish what we came here for!”
Holly looked up. A giant eight-pointed shadow passed over the five kids.
THWAM! The huge octopus appeared above them, crashing its tentacles to the ground.
“No!” cried Liz. “We’re trapped!”
At just that moment the strains of two voices singing a song came floating around a corner.
“Not the Double Dunk twins!” shrieked Holly.
Yes, the Dunk twins. Gigantopus’s red eyes flashed. It saw the two brothers turning their motor scooter onto Main Street. One tentacle snapped around each of the twins and pulled.
“Don’t!” yelled Rob Dunk.
“That’s right!” echoed Bob Dunk. “Don’t!”
But Gigantopus didn’t listen. With a single swift move, his tentacles hurled the twins into a giant mouth, opening on his slimy underside.
One gulp later, the famed donut brothers were no more!
Holly shot up from the ground. “This is not a set, you big monster prop jerk!” she yelled. “It’s not pretend! These are our people! This is our town! It’s the only home we’ve got!”
As if to answer her—KRUNCH!—Gigantopus twisted the sign off the X-rays Us Medical Clinic and threw it to the ground.
Then it coiled up its arms and pushed down.
Gigantopus took off into the desert again.
Liz looked at Holly. “It’s doing that weird zigzag thing again! Maybe we should make a move now, before he comes back.”
“No!” Holly shook her head. “Second Humongous law. It’s—All—Up—To—Us! There’s only one place with the right stuff to fight this thing. Only one place equipped to battle giant monsters.”
“Battle giant monsters?” Sean looked at her, frowning. Then he slowly started to smile. “Yeah, one place. One humongous place!”
“To the studio!” cried Holly. “Now!”
5
The One Big Thing
Entering the wrecked hangar of Humongous Horror Movie Studios gave Holly the spooks. Gashes in the ceiling let in the sunlight. The huge back door was torn away. There was slime everywhere. Everything was a mess.
“Kind of squishy in here,” Liz said.
“And even creepier than before,” said Jeff.
But Holly couldn’t afford to be scared now. Too much had to be done. She heard the distant sounds of crunching and thumping. Gigantopus was slowly destroying their town. “Everybody spread out! Find something to stop this thing!”
Within minutes, the studio was like a big war room. Everyone was bustling around doing jobs.
Mike pulled the miniature model of Grover’s Mill to the center of the floor.
Jeff switched on the radio to WYRD, the Grover’s Mill station, where Rock Storm was broadcasting news. “Reports have come in from all over town,” he said.
Sean walked around the miniature town and stuck little flags in. “Gigantopus has been sighted here, here, and here!”
Holly stepped over. As she looked down at the table, a sense of terror crept up her spine.
“Connect the dots!” gasped Holly.
“They’re little flags,” said Jeff.
“Connect the little flags!” Holly cried out. “They’re making a shape! An eight-pointed shape! An octopus shape!”
“Wow, Holly’s right!” Sean added. “And he’s leaving slimy gloop wherever he goes. A big octopus-shaped trail of gunk around Grover’s Mill.”
“What does it all mean?” asked Mike.
“I don’t know.” Holly scratched her gloopy shirt. “By the way, does anybody else think it’s warm in here?”
“It’s a little warm but it’s way weird,” said Liz. “I mean, I know it would be dumb to ask ‘Why Grover’s Mill?’ It’s The Zone. So, I guess the question is, how do we stop the big octopus?”
Holly jumped. “Yes! The third law of Humongous Horror Movies! The One Big Thing!”
“The what?” said Mike.
Holly explained. “Every huge, hungry, crazy monster can be defeated by The One Big Thing. It’s the one thing that will destroy the monster.”
“How about heat?” said Liz. “Intense heat. Your dad used that in a movie once.”
“Once!” said Sean, with a chuckle. “More like a hundred times!”
“Right!” said Holly. “Or cold, or lightning, or fire, or water, or … water …”
“You said water twice,” said Mike.
“Water!” Holly blurted out again.
“Three times, now,” Mike muttered.
“That’s it!” Holly cried. “If the thing really is a giant octopus, it will need water. All we have to do is figure out something with water!”
“Water!” shouted Liz.
Holly frowned. “We got that far, Liz.”
“No! I mean, somebody get some water!” cried Liz. “Holly’s on fire!”
“What!” Holly turned to see smoke rising from the slime spot on her T-shirt. “Help!”
Jeff dashed to the oversized kitchen set and filled a giant water glass. He splashed it on Holly.
Ssssss! Holly’s T-shirt hissed and smoked.
But when Jeff threw the water, some of it splashed at Sean. “Hey!” He ducked back. When he did that, he slammed hard right into the fog machine. He pushed down its start button.
POOOOOOOOOOOF!
Within moments, the entire hangar was filled with dense fog.
“Ooops!” said Sean, stumbling around. “How do you turn it off?” He tried to find the switch.
Then—whoosh! A soft breeze from the desert pushed the fog out of the room. The air cleared.
And suddenly she was there. The green-suited lady with the red hair. Wisps of fog swirled around her as she strode over to the five friends. She stopped at a crater on the Mars set.
“What an entrance!” said Mike. “Just like in the movies. Are you sure you’re not an actress?”
“That perfume again,” said Jeff. “Wow.”
The woman just stood there.
“You!” cried Holly, staring at her. “We almost have no town left because of you and your big dumb octopus monster! Go home!”
The woman stepped over to Holly. She looked at her with a snarly smile, then ran her fingers through her wavy red hair. “I’m not leaving until I get what I came for.”
Holly didn’t like the sound of that. “Just who are you? And what are you doing here?”
“Maybe this will explain!” snorted the woman. Slowly she reached her left hand up and gripped something under her chin. And with Holly, Sean, Jeff, Mike, and Liz watching her every move, she began to pull!
Sleeooooop!
The woman tugged a thin layer of spongy stuff off her face. Gooey strings of glue came with it. Then she threw her wig to the floor.
“There’s a big green thing under her face!” said Mike, bending to look under.
The big green thing under her face was a big green head! It was a speckly round dome with burning red eyes! Behind the green head were long things twisted up together.
“She’s not a regular lady,” said Mike.
Liz moved closer to her friends. “And I don’t think those are regular braids, either.”
Liz was right. The woman shook her dome as if she were tossing her hair loose from a ponytail. Suddenly, eight slithery green tentacles uncoiled and fell over her shoulder. They slapped to the floor behind her.
“Wow!” said Mike. “An octopus lady!”
“Incredible!” gasped Sean. “Dad uses makeup to change regular faces into ugly heads, and—!”
“—And I did the same,” the ocotopus lady cut in. “To me, humans are ugly heads. And look at you, no tentacles at all!” She snorted a laugh.
Then the lady spoke again. Only this time her voice was different. It sounded deep
and bubbly, as if she were talking underwater. “My name is Octa-Loona! Queen of the Octopus Monsters!”
“Where do you come from, Mars?” asked Jeff.
“Mars!” the green head smirked. “That pitiful planet of surfing zombies? I don’t think so. I happen to be Queen of Planet X! And by the way, Mars doesn’t have anything like these cardboard craters.”
“Thanks for the geography lesson,” Holly said. “But I think you’d better go back to Planet X, because we’ve got lots of other things to—”
“Enough talk!” Octa-Loona interrupted. “It’s time for death. Yours!”
The words struck fear in Holly’s heart. But her brother stepped over next to her and glared at the octopus woman.
“Sorry, Octa-Looney!” snarled Sean. “We have no time for death. We’ve got a town to save!”
Octa-Loona’s red eyes went wide. Her tentacles twitched. “And how are you going to win? I’ve got you way outnumbered!”
Then, in a flash … flash … flash … in eight flashes, actually, Octa-Loona unfurled her tentacles and made a big green fist with each one!
“Anyone for tentacles?” cried the Queen of Planet X.
Within seconds, the fight had begun!
6
Thonk! Pow! Ka-blang!
“Attack!” shrieked Holly, charging at the eight-tentacled Queen of Planet X.
“Wait! First we need attack props!” cried Sean. He rushed to the castle set from Dream Dungeon Disco, and grabbed a shiny sword off the wall.
“Now we attack!” he yelled, charging at Octa-Loona, waving the shiny sword.
Flonk! The sword blade bent in half as he ran. “Uh-oh!” Then the shiny stuff fell off. It was foil.
Sean stopped. “Hey, I thought it was real.”
“Ha!” Octa-Loona smirked. “Toys are no match for me. Here’s something real for you!”
THWACK! Sean was hurled back onto the bed of spikes from Torture, Anyone? Luckily, the spikes were made of rubber.
“She’s winning!” yelled Holly. She dashed across the hangar and came running back with the giant hairy hand from Pa’s Hairy Paws!
“Oh, want to shake?” Octa-Loona snarled. “Well, okay, let’s!”
THWANK! One tentacle snapped around Holly’s arms and lifted her into the air. Then it began to shake her up!