CHAPTER 1
Farmer Brown
Farmer Brown sighed. He was tilling the ground by his farm, and he wanted to find the tool that was just right. His eyes fell to the old pitchfork. He smiled and picked up the tattered piece of metal. It always seemed to hold the answer. Suddenly, it started to rain an orange liquid. He held out his hand to touch the enchanting substance, but winched in pain and drew his hand back quickly. He stared at his hand in awe. It was smeared with blood. “I won’t last long in this storm,” He thought. “ It has just rained, and this lava stuff will make a deadly flood!” Some people would have lost hope, and at first Mr. Brown did, but then something marvelous happened. He thought of the pitchfork. Without even thinking, he grabbed the sturdy fork and stuck it into the ground. He grabbed his rake, and then his shovel, and sunk those Into the ground, too. He was making a path to the big oak that was a few feet away from him. He climbed onto the pitchfork and smiled in satisfaction as the fork groaned, then settled with a high-pitched squeak. He gathered his breath, and with a mighty leap jumped to the rake. But the trouble came when he jumped on the shovel. As he was about to jump to the mighty oak, the shovel broke. He yelled out in surprise. “ This is the end!” He cried.
CHAPTER 2
Sequoia
“Cheery Up, Cheerily! Cheery Up, Cheerily!” Sequoiasighed. “ There is wisdom in your words, Robin.” She whispered. Sequoia’s mother had died earlier in the month. She was very close to her. Sequoia was jolted back to reality when she noticed a strange sap oozing out of a nearby tree. A small leaf filled with water tipped out of the same tree, dousing the odd sap. It immediately turned black. She reached out in wonder, but some of the sap fell from the sky, right on her! The sap stung like a bullet. She quietly rubbed her arm while thinking. After a few minutes, she had pieced all the pieces of the puzzle together. “ Lava!” She cried. “It’s lava!” Just at that moment, a baby raccoon stalked up to her. It was all alone and smudged with dirt. She scooped the baby in her arms and they huddled together through the deadly rain.
CHAPTER 3
Karla
Karla Johnston wiped her head in satisfaction as she surveyed the delicious batch of cookies that just came out of the oven. Her gaze shifted from the cookies to the smiling painting of her mom. Darlene Johnston looked proudly down from her stoop on the wall. Karla smiled wearily. “ I kept my promise, mama.” She quietly said. “ I’ve ran the bakery.” Her daddy had drawn that picture of mom when Karla was very little. Now, her mom was in a nursing home and barely ever called or visited. Karla had ran mama’s little bakery for a over a year now. She wiped her flour-stained hands on her apron, and decided she needed to go shopping. As she was about to walk down from her cozy apartment, she stopped dead in her tracks. Below her was a boiling vat of lava! She rubbed her eyes, half expecting to wake up with her head on the marble counter, but nothing happened. She gulped, and ran unto her room. “PAWS!!!” She cried. The little kitten slowly walked up to her. She picked up paws and held him to her face. “ We need to get out of here- NOW!”
CHAPTER 4
Danika.
“Like… this is taking like-forever!” Danika Larson angrily tapped her foot, until a text popped up on her screen. It read:
She and her friend, Mattie, had a long, looong conversation.
Basically, Mattie thought they would have their party (yes, they were having a party.) in the city, but Danika said they were going to have it in the mountains, and got all upset. Mattie understood and was sorry, and then Danika asked if she had remembered to hire a car driver. Danika forgot, and so Mattie just gave up.
“Uhh…” Danika thought. “ Mattie’s nice… but she sometimes gets on my nerves.” “DAN!” Came a cry from the living room. “DAAAN!!!” “What, sis?” Danika yelled back, running into the living room. “Orange juice!” She happily stated as she pointed to a bubbling orange mixture. “ Uhh… hate to burst your bubble- BUT THAT’S LAVA!!!” She screamed. “WE HAVE TO GET AWAY!!!!!!!!” She grabbed her sister, Harriette, and slung her over her shoulder. She dashed away from the frothy lava.
CHAPTER 5
Farmer Brown
Mr. Brown slowly opened his eyes. Was he dead? He looked around him. There was lava swirling everywhere. Why wasn’t he burning? He looked down. There was a gray slab of concrete. He remembered. “I fell on The Ruins…” “The Ruins” goes back a hundred years, when Mr. Brown’s great grandpa settled the land and built a thriving, bustling farmhouse. After many years of use, the old farmhouse fell apart, and only a particular slab of concrete remained. Mr. Brown fell into a dreamy daze… and only woke up when he burned. The lava had risen, and his arm had fallen in the it. He pulled it out of the horrible brew. “I need to go to the Oak!” He thought as he stood up. He gathered his breath and jumped onto the majestic tree.
CHAPTER 6
Sequoia
“Whimper. Whimper.” As the bubbling lava turned into puddles, baby raccoon whimpered. “Shh… baby raccoon, shh…” Sequoia comforted the raccoon. The lava encircled them, and the kind Cherokee girl began to worry. “I know what we need to do.” She stated as she quietly stood up. There were trees all around, and she planned to jump from tree to tree. She put the raccoon around her trembling neck like a scarf, and gathered her wits. She finally jumped onto a tree, and held on for dear life. She swung until she had gathered enough momentum. She then let go, and she flew to the other tree effortlessly. This went on until Sequoia felt she would burst with soreness. She groggily climbed the mighty Elm she was currently on, and closed her eyes with exhaustion. Before she knew it, she was dreaming. She dreamed she saw two men walking on the lava. They walked right to her Elm and held up a pair of rock-shoes. “Wait a minute…” She thought. “I’m not dreaming!” With trembling hands, she grabbed the rock-shoes and put them on. The men explained everything. “We knew a lava crisis was coming,” One man said. “ And John here thought rocks wouldn’t burn apart if they were submerged. Well, he was right , and he also thoughtup the brilliant idea of rock-shoes.” They talked as they walked the long way to higher ground, and even raccoon felt at ease.
CHAPTER 7
Karla
Paws meowed and wiggled. “Now don’t you knock us off here.” Karla quietly reprimanded him. They had found no place to get out, so here they were, sitting on the window ledge with no place to go. Karla thought hard as she stared at the gurgling mess in front of her. Suddenly, an idea popped into her head. She reached for the scissors she kept in her pocket. “Always be prepared.” Her mom had always said when they were baking. Karla could almost hear mom speaking to her right by her side. She looked at her thick, black hair. “ Man…” She thought. “This hair won medals!” She took yet another solemn moment to look at her hair. After she finished, she carefully cut each of her separate, long braids, and quickly tied them together. “Hard as steel.” She thought to herself as she pulled on the sturdy braid-rope. She tied the rope to her bedroom window, and carefully climbed down, Paws clawing at her neck like a jaguar. She climbed until she reached a tree stump, and hopped on.
CHAPTER 8
Danika.
Danika franticly texted her friend.
Danika said that lava makes her very sad and that she and her sis were trapped on a car, and Mattie rolled her eyes. Danika then said she was very carsick, and then Mattie was surprised.
This fits in with the story, because Danika and her sister were trapped on a car. They jumped from their apartment building to get away from the lava and landed on an overturned car, and there they were. “Uhh…” Danika said. “ I don’t feel so good…” Harriette giggled.“ Big wave come up!” She said. Danika suddenly became ever-alert. “That wave could kill us!” She whispered. The wave quickly washed past, but knocked Danika’s phone into the lava! “NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!” Danika screamed. “NOT THE PHONE!!!!!! ANYTHING BUT THE PHONE!!!!” She watched in horror and resentment as her Apple I-phone slowly sunk into the glowing, orange liquid.
CHAPTER 9
Farmer Brown
Mr. Brown shivered. “Strange I’m cold” He thought. “I’m a few feet away from scalding lava!” There was no sound around him. Not a bird. Not even a cricket. Lucky for him, the lava seemed to be going down. “All gone…” He whispered to himself. “it’s all gone…” He looked down at his house. It was a heap of charred bricks, in the midst of swirling lava. He fell asleep looking at the house. When he woke up, the lava was gone. There was no grass, just unrecognizable heaps of black stone. He gingerly climbed down from the tree. He walked through a new world. He almost stepped on an object, which he picked up. It was a pitch-black skull. He shivered at the thought of what had happened to the owner of the fragment of bone. It was child-sized, with a hole on the top. He shed a single tear. He walked for a while, and sighed with relief. There was his wife, surveying the damage done by the lava. He walked over and hugged her.
CHAPTER 10
Sequoia
Sequoia laughed. “Dawson is funny.” She thought. John and Dawson took her to their home on top of a hill, where they introduced her to their sister, Carmela. They gave her some clean clothes, and waited while the lava went down. She looked at the little raccoon, which she had named F.S.. (“F.S.” Stood for Fire Stormer) He was happily nibbling on a cracker. Sequoia was going to keep him as a pet, since his mom was probably killed by the lava. She gathered the baby raccoon in her arms, and rocked him in her chair. “Hey, everyone!” John said. “The lava’s all gone!” Everyone in the room cheered, and John walked over with smile on his face. He walked right over to Sequoia, and got on one knee. “I never thought we’d survive this.” He said to her. “Will you-“ He started. “Yes.” Sequoia said. “Yes!” She hugged John tight and grinned. F.S. climbed onto Sequoia, and snuggled into her shoulder.
CHAPTER 11
Karla
Paws walked to the other side of the stump anxiously. His tail accidentally dropped into the lava, and he hissed with pain. “Smart move,” Said Karla sarcastically. “I was getting your tail clipped, anyway.” The lava was going down quick, and soon a group of people appeared. They kept saying things like “We survived!” And “Thank God!” Karla looked at her shoes. She had given up on religion ever since her dad died. “Why do they look so happy?” She thought. “They seem so carefree- like they never worry!” She waved her hands to get their attention, and they came over. A woman in the group smiled. “Mom?!” Karla cried. “Is that you?” The lady hugged her. “Sorry I never visited!” She cried. “It’s all right.” Karla said. “I guess I didn’t make an effort to keep in touch with you.” Darlene whispered something in her ear. “Yes!!” Karla cried. “I’d love to join your group!” She hugged her mom again. “Let’s go home.” Her mom said. And they did.
CHAPTER 12
Danika
“I’m gonna call Katie on your phone,” Harriet said, reaching for Danika’s pocket.” “You can’t,” Danika bluntly said. “It’s burned up, remember?” Harriet pouted. “I have no life now!” She whined. “ ‘fraid so.” Danika said. Harriet’s eyes widened. Look behind you!” She cried to Danika. “I’m not falling for that, now.” Danika said. “IT’S TRUE!!!” Harriet excitedly yelled. “There’s Mattie!” Danika slowly looked behind her. “Why, you’re right!” She said. “There’s Mattie and her family, and the lava’s gone!” She jumped off the car and ran to Mattie. “Sorry I was so impatient!” She said as she hugged her friend. “It’s all right.” Mattie said. “The lava destroyed your home, so now you can live with us!” “All right!” Danika yelled. “C’mon, Harriet! We’re living with Mattie now!” Harriet ran over to them, and pumped her fist with glee.