Prologue
"Nooooo!" she cried. "Nooooooo! Don't! Take me instead! Nooooooo!"
But The Thing paid no attention. As its gaseous, purple body closed
around the Head Computer in Howtown, City Hall cried out one more time,
"Nooooo! You can't, you mustn't!! Noooooooooo!"
But The Thing, like the evil virus it was, connected to the computer
and destroyed it. And City Hall was forced to watch all her work, all
the code she had slaved over, be destroyed, bit by bit, piece by piece.
Then, her computer went black as the last of Howtown was destroyed.
"Well," she sighed. "I guess it's back to the old drawing board."
A year later City Hall awoke with a start as the horrible dream-memory ended.
Chapter 1
City Hall stared at her computer screen as a terrible thought occurred to
her. What if I fail to protect Whyville as I failed Howtown? she asked
herself. Already strange things were happening. Just a few days ago almost
no one could get into Whyville, and those that could saw it was completely
out of whack. Maybe this forewarns an attack of The Thing? City
Hall decided to go to Whyville.
In Whyville everything was okay. The citizens were chatting happily,
discussing the events of the previous week. Suddenly, the letters turned
into symbols. Brainbub was being shrouded in a purple mist! A stream of
symbols issued from his mouth as the picture was broken into bits of
pieces. Everyone left the screen in a matter of seconds. City Hall changed
some code so no one could get into Whyville Square without a special password.
Then she went into Whyville West, where everyone had gone. All the
citizens started up at once "What happened?" "What was that?" "Is it
still there?" "What happened to Brainbub?" "Is that thing a virus?"
"One at a time, one at a time." she said "Brainbub got swallowed by some
purple thing, The Thing, I don't know, he was swallowed up, yes."
How can I battle that thing,
she thought.
Then unexpectedly the aliens got off their ship above the Sun Spot. They
held little ray guns and started blasting things! One ray gun was fired
at 7. City Hall tried to say "7! Look out!" But instead she said "%! &@
*^&!" And 7 disappeared in a flash of purple light. Then 7 and Brainbub
popped out of the ship, but they were wearing oversized purple sunglasses.
"Surrender to The Thing!" they said. "Or--" suddenly they stopped,
and 7 shouted,
"No! Don't!!" "NEVER SURRENDER!" Brainbub thundered. But the aliens turned
around and cornered them.
"Surrender!" they cried.
"Projectiles!" Brainbub shouted, and he and 7 hurled projectile after
projectile at the aliens. The fools, City Hall thought, how do
they think that will help? Then she realized something. The aliens
guns were gooped up! They couldn't fire! But one of the aliens cleaned
its gun, leaped in between the two, vaporized Brainbub and 7, and leveled
it at City Hall in a split second.
"Surrender or die," it said as it adjusted the gun's power level. "Surrender
or die."
To be continued...
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
