Adventure in time: A chapter book by Aryaa Gupta

Adventure in time

A chapter book by Aryaa Gupta

 Table of contents

The invention of V.R. 

Through the clouds

Dino run

A pyramid of dreams

Human sacrifice

Let’s fight

To the future

The adventure begins

1

The invention of the VR 

I stared out the window; it was beautiful. Everything was covered in sparkly white snow. Unfortunately, after a while, it became boring too. I decided to go to my best friend Bree’s house. Bree was pretty much a mastermind, a child genius, the opposite of me. She was always inventing something new, but most of the time it was something that was always there but she would make it better. I pulled on my coat, shoes, and hat and hurried out the door.

I ran across the street and knocked on her door. Bree opened the door and took my hat and coat. She took me upstairs to show me her latest invention. “They are VR goggles, and they give you the feeling that you are going to different places in time. Schools could use it to have virtual field trips.” she continued, “Also these are 12D. I made a suit to go with them. Put it on. The suit has wires and devices to make you feel hot, cold, or fuzzy.”

It hadn’t been used yet so we decided to do a trial run. She had made 2 prototypes, so we each pulled one on. She said, “Ash, when you are ready, spin the gears on the side of the goggle. Also when you don’t like the reality we are in, spin the gears to move on.” We spun the gears on the side of the goggles. I saw strange images flash before my eyes. It was crazy. Strange colors, strange creatures, and strange peoples.

2

Through the clouds 

I looked around but all I could see was white, white, and white. “Ash!” I heard Bree yell. “Yes!” I replied. Around me, I could feel a strange cold mist (it was also white). I walked forward, to find Bree. My steps felt soft like I would fall through the floor, and then I did. I went down so fast, and before I knew it, I had landed on something soft. I looked at what I landed on. It was white and fluffy, like a cloud. “Ash where are you?” I could hear Bree shouting from up above. I looked up half-expecting to see Bree, but instead, I saw a cloud, a big white cloud hovering above me. I looked around me, and then I realized we were in the sky. I stared up at the huge cloud as I could hear voices from it.  I kept staring until someone else fell through. Bree landed on me. “I’m so sorry.” Bree said as she helped me back on my feet. 

When I was back on my feet I could hear shouting from above. Then, there was an extremely loud shout and with it came lightning and thunder. A tall man angrily stomped down from the cloud. “Who is he?” I asked Bree. “Probably a god” she replied. The “God” man must have heard us because he started to turn around. I yanked Bree down into the cloud so he wouldn’t see us. We stayed there for a while until we were sure that he had left. 

Slowly, I stood up, but I wasn’t careful enough so I fell through the clouds again. I screamed as I started falling. I wasn’t all that worried though. After all, it was just 12D VR. But just in case! “Switch the gears on the goggles” was what Bree had told me to do when I didn’t like the place we were in. Again I see the strange colors, strange creatures, and strange peoples.

3

Dino run

         When the colors stopped swirling this time, I saw a forest. It was beautiful. There were dozens of colorful plants and animals. “Woah” I heard a voice next to me say. I screamed and accidentally jumped into a bush. I saw Bree standing in front of me. She pulled me out of the bush and told me that when she saw me disappear into thin air she knew I had switched the gears on the side of the goggles, so she had switched her gears. The 2 of us stared at the beauty surrounding us until we heard a loud roar coming from the trees. I looked at the rustling trees, “What was that?” I asked Bree.  I looked at her. She was as pale as a ghost as she whispered, “Dinosaur.” I quickly turned around to see a huge T-Rex towering over us.

        

         “Run!” I screamed, and so we ran. But then I thought if this was all VR, then it couldn’t actually make us feel anything, but so far I had felt myself falling through 2 clouds and getting scratched by a bush. But I didn’t really have the time to think. All I had to do was run. I knew we couldn’t keep running for too long, so we hid behind a bush. Lucky for us the T-Rex didn’t take long to leave. Now that we could calm down, I told Bree about how real it all felt and how it might not have been VR. She looked at me like I was crazy, “Ash,” she said, “this is 12D, meaning you could smell and feel things in this.” What she said made me feel a little better, but it also made me sort of more worried. 

“Maybe we should leave this place, in case the dinosaur comes back.” I said. “You’re right” she replied. She turned the gears and she disappeared, but I wasn’t ready to leave yet. What would have happened had the dinosaur caught us? What would have happened had he eaten us? Would we have died? I had to find Bree. I turned the gears as fast as lightning and got ready to see the strange things that would be around me next.

4

Pyramid of dreams

         I saw sand, I felt the heat, and I wanted ice cream. That was what I was feeling, but for now, I needed to find Bree. I looked at the endless miles of sand in front of me, then both sides of me, but no sign of Bree. I felt a tap on my shoulder. When I turned around I saw her, hands on hips. “What took you so long to get here?” she said. I stared at her. She looked angry. What could I say? “What if we were traveling in time, the dinosaurs, the gods, ya know?” I asked. She raised an eyebrow at me. I was pretty surprised when she said, “That might actually be true. I think you're onto something.” I looked around us some more. The farthest thing from the sand was a tomb. I knew Bree saw it too because she pointed at it and said, “Let’s go.” 

         By the time we finished our hike to the tomb, we were both hot enough to cook an egg on the palm of our hands. I leaned against the pyramid but quickly leaped off. We may be hot, but that thing was practically on fire. We found a door in the back, it wasn’t that hot because it was in the shade. We pushed the door open. The room had spiderwebs in every corner. I could feel tingles in my spine. I shivered. I saw a narrow passage. I pointed it out to Bree. As I started walking, Bree tackled me. An arrow flew by where my head was 2 seconds ago. “Careful, booby traps,” Bree said to me.

And so, the rest of the way was filled with other sorts of traps that could have killed us. The final room was filled with gold and treasure. It was beautiful. I reached for some coins but Bree stopped me. “This is just VR. Nothing is real” she told me. We decided it was time to move from this reality to a new one.

5

Human sacrifices

         I looked around us. We seemed to be in a busy bazaar. There were people swarming around us everywhere. Bree looked around and then smiled, “We must be somewhere in central America, probably some famous civilization. Like the Inca, Maya, and Aztec, ya know?” I had no clue what she was talking about, but I didn’t want to look stupid, so I said, “Yeah, right!” hoping she wouldn’t notice. I walked away after telling her that I was going to figure out where we were. I walked up to a lady and I tapped her shoulder. She turned around and stares at me. I asked her, “Where are we?” She stared at me. I decided she probably didn’t know English, so this time when I said it I exaggerated my words and used hand motions. She still seemed confused, except this time she also looked a little bit frightened and worried. Then, she screamed something in a  different language and pointed at me. People started staring and pointing at us. Geez! Had these people not heard of manners?

         I turned around looking for Bree. She was in the exact same spot that I had left her in but no one had noticed her. She carefully moved through the crowd and disappeared from view. Great, now I was all alone. It felt weird. I was just standing there with people pointing and whispering about me. Finally, after what felt like forever I decided to just walk away, but about 2 seconds after I took a step, I was surrounded by tall men, and they all seemed angry and ready to attack. I looked around. Where was Bree when I needed her the most? Then I remembered this was all VR, so I ran towards one of them. I didn’t go through him like I had thought, instead, I bumped into him. That is when I remembered that this was 12D. 

         My condition was way worse now. I was lying on the ground right underneath an extremely unhappy man who totally hated me. Now I was freaking out. How was I going to live? I searched for Bree everywhere, both sides, and even the sky (I was desperate).  When I looked through his legs I saw Bree. She pointed to the gears on the side of her goggles. I reached up to the side of my goggles and switch the gears.

6

Night in Delhi

         We seemed to be in a cute little village. There were people around us but they didn’t think we were strange like people did in our last cute little village. I guess they just thought we were just kids playing around, doing stuff. But where were we? I looked at Bree, she shrugged. So apparently, she was just as clueless as I was. I told Bree I was going to figure out where we were but she told me that this time she was going to go. I agreed that that might be a better idea especially considering what happened last time. She walked over to a lady and tapped on her shoulder. The lady turned around and said something in another language. Bree replied in that language. While they were talking, I heard a cannon erupt. I screamed. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy. “Canons!” I yelled. Bree said something in another language. The people's expression changed to a worried face. They started hurrying around grabbing things and hiding people they loved. Bree walked up to me and told me we were in Delhi at the time of the Islamic invasion. I had no idea what that was but I didn't ask her either.

         The lady whom Bree was talking to walked up to us and said, “Follow me.” I looked at Bree. She shrugged, so we followed the lady. I didn’t realize what was going on until we were in a big barrel. Bree still hadn’t said anything, so I finally asked Bree what was going on. She told me we were hiding from the Muslims who were about to attack. “Why are they attacking us?”  I asked her. Bree grumbled “We learned this in social studies. Weren’t you paying attention?” “Well, maybe it was so boring that I fell asleep. So what was it?” I asked. I heard shouting outside, I also heard different bangs and clangs and screaming. The screaming made me want to scream.

         “Because I don’t want you to fall asleep and because I don’t want them to hear us, I will keep this description as short as possible. The Muslims came to India and raided everything, took women and children back as slaves, burned houses, and killed anyone who came in their way. A few of them stayed here and settled down with Islamic traditions. The en-” I make fake snoring sounds to show her she was starting to get boring. We heard noises coming towards us, we went quietly (I don’t think either of us was breathing). Someone kicked it over the barrel and we fell out. They pointed their cannons at us. I thought they were whispering about the VR glasses. This was getting out of hand. Bree switched her gear and disappeared. They gasped. They came closer to me. I knew I had to leave too “Uh...I gotta go” I said as I reached for my gears, “Bye!”

7

Fire

         We were in a town that would have been cute had it not been on fire. People were screaming, kids and babies were crying, and everyone was running in a panic. It was a disaster. This time I thought I might know where we were, so I guessed “Great Chicago fire”. Bree shrugged, “We should help them.” We decided to try and help. We walked over to a lady who was sobbing in front of her home. A little girl and a man were standing next to her. Bree asked her what was wrong. The lady told her that her baby boy was still inside the house. Bree’s expression changed from worried to determined. Next thing I knew she was charging into the house. 

I couldn’t leave Bree alone. I ran in after her (I knew I would probably regret it). I was officially inside a burning house that would probably collapse in like 2 seconds. I ran from bedroom to bedroom grabbing everything I could (I burned my hand a few times by touching things that were too hot. Also, a few of the bedrooms had walls of fire blocking me from going inside). I heard a shout that sounded like Bree. I followed it to a room that was blocked. I had to get Bree out. I needed water. I looked around for water. As I was moving, something fell from my hand. It’s a canteen. I must have grabbed it a while ago! 

         I rushed outside the house gasping for fresh air. Bree came out right after me and she handed the baby to its mother. I dropped the things on the ground. The family was so happy that they said they would give us anything we asked for. They also had a puppy and the puppy was happy too. I laughed and picked the puppy up. They gave us the puppy because they wouldn’t be able to take care of it anymore. The puppy’s name was Princess. As we walked away from their family, we decided it would be a good idea to leave. Before we left, Bree told me we had been in the middle of WW II in Germany! 

8

To the future

         I expected to see another cute little village full of terror. Instead, I saw things I had never seen before. People were flying. Others weren't even humans; they were cyborgs. I saw restaurants with robots working there. There was even a place called robot surgery (plastic surgery with robot installations). This place was epic. The cars could drive themselves, and people just had to hop in or hop off. Bree was amazed by it as well. She was staring at a clothes store called Electric. I thought it was cool too. We went inside. It looked like a normal store on the inside except the clothes looked so bold, fierce, and electric. As we looked through the clothes, I found an amazing dress with neon lines. On my way to the dressing room, I saw the perfect pair of shoes to go with the dress.  I changed into it and hurried out to show Bree. It turned out Bree had also found a cute outfit.

         We stepped out of the store wearing the new clothes that we had just bought. Bree thought it was a good idea to leave now, but I really badly wanted to go to the restaurant across the street. When we sat down, we got our menu. As I looked through it, I noticed that there was a whole section for things with cheese in them. I ordered a cheese latte. I also ordered a cheese tart. Bree ordered an ice cream taco. I also ordered a puppy meal for Princess. After about 5 minutes, the food arrived. My cheese latte was pretty much just melted cheese with a few other ingredients (it was still delicious). My cheese tart was a mini cheese pie. I loved the cheese pie, and I couldn’t stop eating. Princess loved her puppy meal. Bree loved her ice cream taco.

         When we were done, we decided it was time to head home. Our adventure had finally come to an end. I picked up Princess and switched my gears. The strange colors, strange people, and strange animals return. It would probably be the last time I’d ever see them.

9

The adventure begins

         Finally, we were back in Bree’s room. We took off our goggles and lay down on her bed to relax after the adventure journey through virtual reality time travel. I looked at her and gasped. We were still in the outfits that we had gotten in our adventure in the future! Bree looked at my outfit as well. How did it happen? This was only supposed to be VR with 12D!  “Wait, the suit was what made the whole thing 12D, but when we changed, we took the suit off.” I said. “You’re right.” Bree said, “maybe we did travel in time”. We changed into our normal clothes and went downstairs.

         “Ah, there you are! Where were you?” Bree’s mom said to us. Bree and I looked at each other and smiled, “We were on an adventure!” Her mom smiled, “Come. I made chocolate chip cookies.” Bree and I strolled through the snow (she was walking me home after the cookies). “This is an amazing discovery we made, we traveled through time!” Bree said, “You made it. It was your discovery” I told her. “But we did it together, and that is what counts” she replied.

         When we reached my house, both Bree and I promised we’d do it again another day, and this wouldn’t be the last time we time traveled. When I walked into the kitchen my mom asked what I did at Bree’s house. I told her what Bree told her mom, “We went on an adventure.” I rushed upstairs and pulled out my notebook and pencil. I started brainstorming for our next adventures: The great wall of china, The Eiffel tower, The Frug.

The future better be ready because here I come!

 Written by: 

Aryaa Gupta

Edited By:

Aanchal Agrawal