8 Ch8-We Have a Problem

Chapter 8 We Have a Problem "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKK!" "He's getting away!" "Run for your lives said Neil the nude kid. After General Muffin jumped off my hand, he ran under a table, so we lost sight of him. Everybody was yelling and screaming and freaking out. You should have been there.

"Now look what you've done, Arlo!" shouted Andrea. "I didn't do anything!" I shouted back at her. Ms. Krup pulled out her walkie-talkie. "Chief! We have a problem!" she shouted. "General Muffin is missing!" "General Muffin is hissing?" a voice replied. "So what?" "Not hissing!" Ms. Krup said. "Missing!" We all hid in the corner while Ms. Krup searched for General Muffin on her hands and knees. She couldn't find him anywhere. "I don't like this place," Emily whimpered. "I want to go home."

For once I agreed with her. I didn't want a missing hissing cockroach crawling up my leg. The grown-ups led us down the hall into an auditorium. "You'll be safe in here," Ryan's mom told us. "They're going to show you a video. We'll find General Muffin." We watched a movie called Our Reptile Friends. We learned lots of stuff about reptiles. Like, snakes can still hear even though they don't have ears! So be careful what you say around snakes! The video was pretty cool, but I still don't want to make friends with any reptiles. I was getting tired. Some of the kids fell asleep in the middle of the video. When it was over, the grown-ups came back to get us. "Did you catch General Muffin?" we all asked. "He's in a safe place," Ms. Krup said. Whew! That was a relief. There was no way I would be able to sleep, knowing a giant hissing cockroach from Madagascar was running around. Ms. Krup and the other grown-ups walked us back down to the first floor. Our sleeping bags were spread out under Giganotosaurus, right next to the giant bear. It was gonna be cool to sleep next to a bear and under a dinosaur. And the best part was that we didn't have to brush our teeth. The grown-ups drank some coffee and talked about the weather for a few minutes. Then they climbed into their sleeping bags too. "Good night, everyone!" said Ms. Krup. "I'll see you in the morning." "Good night," we all said. "I'm scared," said that crybaby Emily.

"Don't worry," Ryan's mom said. "Giganotosaurus will protect you." I didn't see how something that died ninety-five million years ago was going to protect anybody. But that was Emily's problem. I climbed into my Batman sleeping bag. The floor was hard and cold. I started thinking about Batman. I wondered if the opposite of "Batman" is "Manbat" or "Namtab." Or maybe the opposite of "Batman" is "NotBatman." I couldn't fall asleep. It was creepy looking up at Giganotosaurus in the dark. So I thought about the cool dead and live animals we had seen. I thought about The Secret Room and wondered what was in it. "Psssst! Ryan!" I whispered. Ryan didn't answer. He was asleep. Everybody was quiet. You could hear a pin drop in the museum. I think I was the only one who was still awake. That's when I heard it. A horrible noise! It was some kind of a monster! And it was right near me! It sounded like a giant nocturnal meat eater! And it was about to eat me alive!