into our world – along with the horrible zombie plague. It looked a bit like this . . .
A bunch of these monsters took up residence at our local slice shop, Joe’s Pizza. And they weren’t evil – they were terrifying-at-first-but-totally-friendly-in-the-end monsters.
However, one of the monsters was actually pure evil. His name was Thrull, and he worshipped the diabolical ultra-villain Ŗeżżőcħ the Ancient, Destructor of Worlds. Thrull was trying to bring Ŗeżżőcħ to Earth so that Ŗeżżőcħ could devour and destroy our planet.
Me, my human buddies, and the Joe’s Pizza monster crew teamed up to defeat Thrull and Ŗeżżőcħ. But Ŗeżżőcħ may try to return. See, he’s got a whole Emperor Palpatine vibe to him. Very sinister, possibly bad skin.
So these days, my human buddies and the good-dude monsters live in awesome harmony in Wakefield Town Square. It used to be a boring old suburban town. But now it’s Monster City!
When my friends and I get back from our run-in with the King Wretch, we’re greeted by Biggun. He’s the biggest of all the friendly monsters. He stands guard at the entrance to the Town Square, day and night, rain or shine or regular in-the-middle cloudiness. Doesn’t talk. He’s basically the town bouncer.
The monsters have turned the crumbling Wakefield Town Square into a busy, bustling monster home – a place where all are welcome.
‘Hey-ya, Jack!’ a monster named Pogvane says.
‘Dirk, we arm wrestling later?’ the monster Etagg calls out.
‘June, you must show me how to prepare your fried macaroni recipe!’ another monster says.
Strolling through town, my heart swells. I’ve just never felt more complete. It’s like walking down the hall at school, and everyone knows you, everyone says hey, everyone wants to chat. It’s a feeling I’d never had – a feeling I could only imagine until now.
It’s camaraderie.
Besides that awesome human-monster camaraderie, the best part of our Town Square home is that it’s totally zombie-free – and that’s thanks to our monster friend Bardle . . .
-Bardle-
Bardle and Quint designed torches to keep the zombies away. You know those candles you light in the summer to keep mosquitos away? It’s like that. We call them Zom-B-Gone torches. They surround the Town Square, so we don’t have to worry about zombies popping up at inopportune moments and, y’know, eating us.
The Zom-B-Gone torches might maybe work on Winged Wretches, too, because other than that big ol’ King Wretch, we haven’t seen many of those around lately. Not that I’m complaining.
Anyway, in Wakefield Town Square, there’s always something fun going down. For example:
• One day, it’s the monster Muldrurd having a sale on newly crafted arms and armour. Another day, it’s a rock-eating contest.
• There’s a weekly wrestling match where these two big lugs – Thonn and Gronn – duke it out. They got the idea after I showed them an old episode of WWE Raw I had on DVD.
• Sometimes at night, we watch movies. Y’know, to show the monsters about life on Earth – and to show them that movies are the best.
There are restaurants, too. The monsters are still learning how to cook with Earth food – a few of their things came through the portal with them, but not much. The food is – well – interesting . . .
After we grab a bite, Quint yawns. ‘I’m exhausted from the day’s adventures. And I should get to work on repairing the radio.’
‘Yes!’ June exclaims. ‘No dillydallying. Straight to work, Quint.’
I won’t lie – I’m beat, too. And a little freaked from the King Wretch encounter. So we head home. Home is a tree house – and the tree house is mind-clobberingly cool . . .
The tree house used to be in my backyard. But – thanks to a monster called the Wormungulous – the whole thing was transplanted here, downtown, into the Joe’s Pizza parking lot . . .
So this is life right now.
And as we stroll back to the tree house, I’m thinking that life is good!
In fact, life is perfect !
Of course, in a post-Monster-Apocalypse world, life is never perfect for long . . .
Just a few days later, I’m up early, playing with my Helidrone. I hang beef jerky off it, and Rover tries to pluck it in mid-air.
That’s when Quint calls me up to the tree house. Minutes later, we’re all gathered upstairs – me leaning against the doorway, trying to look Star-Lord cool.
Quint has a smile on his face that’s different from any Quint smile I’ve seen before. Closest comparison: when we got opening night, midnight tickets to see the second Avengers movie.
The look is a mixture of shock and excitement – like he won the dork lottery.
He flicks on the radio, and the little light turns green. It’s working!
‘I repaired it. But the issue,’ Quint says, ‘is the range of the antenna. I need parts to make the antenna fully functional. But I can and will. Soon, we will be able to listen to whoever is talking out there.’
June looks at Quint, down at the radio, and then back to Quint. And she erupts . . .
Quint is beaming. I see tears in June’s eyes. Big, fat, happy tears. ‘Jack, isn’t this wonderful?’
‘Um, yes! ’ I say. ‘Imagine the cool stuff we can do now! We can meet monsters! We can trade weapon designs! Exchange key information about Ŗeżżőcħ! We need to learn radio jargon – I want to know all that classic long-haul truck driver lingo.’
And
