Today we are featuring Inklings Book Contest 2020 finalist, Kai Jenvey! Kai finished 3rd grade this past school year. The story he submitted is called “The Alien Invaders.”  Kai said, “Leo is my favorite character because he’s brave. But he just runs into things and doesn’t worry about consequences. Usually, it ends out okay but sometimes it doesn’t.”

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Chapter One
How It Began 

My name is Leo. I am ten years old. Are you okay if I tell you this story? I will tell you a little bit about the story. It involves aliens, a bit about space, and Earth. With a little history. Are you still okay? Okay – here’s how it began.

It was a hot summer day and I was sweating like crazy. I was on my bed looking out my window eating a BLT sandwich with extra bacon (my favorite food). I saw beautiful trees and blue sky. And that’s when I saw it. Something was moving in the sky. I couldn’t see exactly what it was but it was definitely moving. It was getting brighter and brighter. It looked like a ship. It started to go up but I could still see it.

I ran downstairs, pushed open the front door, and ran outside. I looked at the sky to determine where the ship was. It took me a moment to find it. I found it zooming West and I followed it.  

After about fifteen minutes, it started to land. Finally, it landed completely. I hid behind some rocks. I saw that there was grass but all of the grass was dead. Then I saw scattered bits of wood but no trees. I saw a large warehouse. I waited for people to get out of the spaceship. Lucky for me that only took fifteen seconds.

These weird people started getting out of the ship. They had long robes with swords by their sides. And they all had long hoods to cover their faces. When I say long I mean really long. But they were definitely humans.

They all went into the warehouse. I waited a few seconds to see if anybody came out.  Nobody did. Then I snuck silently up to the warehouse. I found a crack in the warehouse. I put my ear up to it and started to listen. I heard a few words but not everything. I heard things like “Is it time yet?” and “when should we launch them? It is ready.”  One thing really caught my attention was, “The plan has already started.  It started this morning. Once the boss captures them we shall destroy them.”  

 

Chapter Two
Jacob and Nova

I jumped back in surprise. Thump! I landed on the ground hard.  “What was that?” said some of the people in the warehouse.  I ran and hid behind a giant boulder. I stayed there until the people looking for what made that noise went back into the warehouse.  

I turned to run back to my house but was caught off guard. When I turned around I saw two people staring right at my face. “What are you doing here, Leo?” said the girl. 

“Me?  What? I didn’t do anything? How do you know my name?” Then I looked at her closer. I recognized her as Nova, a girl in my fifth-grade class. I didn’t know her that well but she seemed nice enough. Then I looked closer at the other person. It was a boy for sure. It was a boy from my class – Jacob. “What are you doing here?” I asked  

Jacob said, “I saw something from my neighborhood. I saw it was landing near this warehouse. So, I set out to look for it again and when I got close to it I bumped into Nova.” Nova had the exact same story except she bumped into Jacob.  

Right then some of the weird-looking people came out of the house.  Nova gasped. “Who are they?” 

The weird people turned to look but the boulder hid us.  

I told them about what I saw after the weird looking people went back into the ship.  Neither of them believed me. So I told them to go to the warehouse and listen for themselves. They did exactly that.  

They came back wide-eyed. “You heard it,” I said. “What are we going to do?” asked Jacob. I honestly didn’t know what to do. “We could call the police,” I suggested. “No, they wouldn’t believe it,” said Nova.  

I turned to ask Jacob but when I turned to look for him he was gone. “Where’s Jacob,” I asked Nova. 

She looked around.  “I don’t see him.” Then I saw him climbing on the ship. “What are you doing?” I mouthed over to him trying not to draw any attention to myself.  

“I’m going to get on the ship and stop them,” he tried to whisper to me.  

“Get back here NOW,” I ordered.  

“Fine,” he agreed solemnly.  

“Let’s go back home and then tomorrow we’ll meet at school to decide what we are going to do,” I said. Everyone agreed.  

 

Chapter Three
Lex

After we decided we were going to meet at school I went back home. When I got home, I stopped. I heard voices. The voices were rough and mean. “I want to see him,” the man said.  

“No,” said a male voice that sounded like my Dad. 

I heard another “no.” 

“Then at least can I see a photo of him,” the voice demanded. 

“No,” said the male voice again. “I am not giving you anything. Now go.”  

I heard a door closing. Then a loud boom. After that, I saw someone storming out of my house. I confirmed that the male voice now was definitely my Dad. But the other voice I didn’t recognize at all. The person with the rough and mean voice had dark robes but with lots of holes in them. He also had a scar on his hand. His fists were clenched. I ducked out of his path. When he was gone, I walked into the house.

I found my Dad sitting on the couch thinking. 

“What was that about?” I asked him. 

“Nothing,” said Dad.

“I’ll make you French toast, if you tell me,” I said. My Dad loves French toast and would basically do anything for it. 

Dad looked up and grinned. “That was Lex.  He wanted to capture you because he saw you running off to the abandoned warehouse.” 

 “You knew about that?” I asked. My dad nodded.  

Then I understood. I snuck out of my house and I walked past the police station. They must have realized I was going to the abandoned warehouse so they tracked me. Then I realized that the abandoned warehouse was really the town center of an abandoned village. It was not allowed for local townspeople to go near it because they said that it had been a dumping ground for nuclear waste. Or maybe the humans/aliens were a result of that waste? 

I went outside. I knew that home wasn’t an option for now. I was going to have to prove myself wrong. 

“Hey you,” somebody said “We have questions for you about your trip to the abandoned warehouse. 

I swirled around to see five police officers standing outside my door. Oh no, I thought to myself 

 

Chapter Four
The Police Station

They put me into a police car that was parked around the corner from my neighborhood. After I got to the police station they asked me questions. A lot of questions. For example, they asked me, did you know that you were going to the warehouse? I told them that I didn’t. So then they asked me if I was going to the warehouse and I responded no again. Then I asked them a question. ”How do you know I went to the warehouse?” They told me that they knew that I went to the warehouse with two friends. They knew their names — Jacob and Nova.

When I asked them how they knew all this they all gave me the same answer — Lex.

Then I started to get a funny feeling. I remembered that the only hiding place was the boulder. Was Lex there somehow? He wasn’t behind the boulder. Was he an alien himself? 

After about 50 minutes, they forced me into a jail cell. After about another hour or two, Nova and Jacob were there too. They all told me that they saw Lex in their houses also. Then, they said that their houses were about ten minutes away from each other. So, they said that they think Lex is an alien because he was transporting between the two houses so quickly. Then Lex walked up to the jail cell and said, “Well, well, well, look who my prisoners are.  I will destroy you if you try to escape,” he said. And he walked away.  

“That’s not going to stop us,” I muttered.  “But how will we get out of here”, I asked.

Jacob unzipped his jacket and then he pulled out a long thin rope from his pocket.  First, he took the jacket and looped it around a bar. Then, tied it. Then he took the rope and tied it around the jacket. Finally, he took the rope and made it into a loop. Then, he swirled around it around his head and threw it at a police officer. The loop went over his head and then Jacob tightened it. The police officer did not notice. The police officer grunted and tried to run forward but the bar held him back. Finally, the bar broke.  

Jacob, Nova, and I went out of the jail cell.  Then we sprinted around until we found the control office. Five police officers were there. Then I saw a button that was labeled “fire alarm.”  Then I had an idea.

I grabbed a rock that I had in my pocket. I threw it at the red button. There was a mighty crash as the glass that was protecting the button broke. And, then the button was pressed.  

Giant waves of thundering feet. “Duck,” I said. And we ran to a door. We opened the door and ran inside. Lucky for us it was a closet full of clothes.  

I heard more thundering. I peeked outside. Now there were 50 police officers. So we waited for what seemed like forever. Finally, most of the police officers left and it was quiet. So I had an idea. I sent Nova since she was the best at computers to erase all of the data of us sneaking into the abandoned warehouse as we stood guard. Then we ran away. I heard people yelling as they found out that we escaped the jail cell as we ran out the door. I heard someone say “I thought we’d meet again”. I turned to see Lex standing to the left of us. His gun was drawn!  

 

Chapter Five
From Bad to Worse

Just when I thought we were home free, Lex appeared right next to me.  We were in trouble.  Much more trouble than when we were in the jail cell.  “Hahaha.  This is nice.  I told you that if you tried to leave the jail cell I would destroy you but I can’t. I would have loved to destroy you but I have to take you to my boss.” He pointed us to a vehicle. It was like a tricycle but the wheels had pipes going to the back and hooking onto an engine.  It also had four seats instead of one. And finally, it had bazookas strapped to either side of it. We got in it. The thundering of feet was almost to the door of the jail. The vehicle backed up and turned to face the jail. Lex pressed the button on the side of his vehicle that I didn’t see. Rocket boosters appeared beneath our seats and sent us flying up into the sky and then started diving back down again. “Oh yeah,” said Lex with an evil grin. Then the vehicle stopped. Then the tricycle started back up again. It was slowly going in a circle like it was looking for something. Right then I noticed a button on the sides of all of our seats. A blue button and a white one. I pressed the blue button and I heard a sliding noise beneath us. Then I heard buckets of water raining down. I looked back and saw water racing out of the vehicle and splashing down the streets. “Oh,” said Lex.  “You found the water boosters. Turn that off now.”  I pressed the button again and the water stopped. That was amazing, I thought to myself.  

Then I pressed the white button and a hissing noise like a snake surrounded us.  Then a bucket full of snakes appeared on either side of us. Then after that, a pipe appeared and it started sucking up the snakes. It was grey, long, and kinda thin. And then it turned and started shooting snakes out of it. I immediately turned it off because I didn’t want the citizens to get hurt by snakes. Then I realized where we were going. We were going straight for the abandoned warehouse. “Oh no,” I said to myself as we started to land. 

As we landed Lex pressed a button and we all went flying out on a robotic snake. “What the?” Jacob said. Instead of going into the warehouse, the robotic snake went behind the warehouse. On the back of the warehouse was a lever, Lex pushed the lever, and then all of a sudden a trap door opened and the robotic snake slithered in. After about one mile down the robotic snake stopped and we got off. Lex led us into a maze of corridors. Finally, we went to a room with big wood doors with a metal wolf image on each door. On the opposite side was a huge TV. Seriously – this TV was about 25 feet by 25 feet. We walked in and Lex locked the door. And the TV flickered to life. “Hello,” said someone on the TV. He had red robes and a mask that was pure white except for the eyes. His legs and shirt were completely black. He laughed “hahaha. Well, look who we have here.” he said.  

“Why do you want us?” Nova yelled. 

“Why do we want you?” the man stated. “Well, three years from now the humans will find our planet and want to be friends. We wanted to take over your planet to become more powerful. After we take over your planet, we will take over so many more. You people were the only reasons that we lost. That is why we want you. Once we have destroyed you we will win the war. 

“Wait! You made sure that all of us saw the ship so Lex would have a reason to capture us.” I asked. 

“Of course,” the man laughed. “Lex is one of my most trusted men so I sent him on that mission. Now that you are here, me and the people on the planet Aspedon will decide how we will destroy you. Now Lex put them in prison 187, the prison for the powerful ones.” 

Jacob, Nova, and I looked at each other nervously. “The powerful ones? We aren’t powerful. How are we powerful?” Jacob said nervously.  

Lex walked us out of the room and down a hall. Finally, we were at a hall of prison cells.  He walked to a cell with carved letters beneath it – 187. “Welcome to your prison. Have fun with the nature master,” said Lex. We shuffled in. I personally did not like the sound of nature master. 

“Hello,” said a shaggy voice in the shadows “I am the nature master. Better known as the Guardian of the Goblins.”  

 

Chapter Six
Guardian of the Goblins

The shaggy voiced man stepped into the light.  He was completely green except for his hair which was red. He looked like a Christmas tree. He had no clothes except for green shorts with red stripes. Unlucky for him his shorts had holes in them. We were seeing a whole lot more of him than I really wanted.  

Another voice came from above saying “no talking.” A platform lowered with a goat on it. The three of us stood in shock looking at the goat. “Nobody talks in cell number 187,” roared the goat. 

“You’re talking,” said Nova “and you’re a goat. Goats don’t talk.”  

The goat looked flustered. “Goats do talk,” said the goat. 

“You’re also talking in the cell which you just told us not to do,” said Jacob. 

The goat looked confused. “Aww, what the heck,” said the goat.  

“For your information, goats do talk on Aspedon,” said the Nature Master. “And we are allowed to talk. That’s not one of the rules, Goat Boy.” 

The goat sneered “who are you calling goat boy?” Then he charged “ For the Cupcakes” as he charged the Nature Master.  

The Nature Master sighed and slapped his hands.  Two vines lifted him into the air. He was now above us. “Listen, Goat Boy. First, you need a better battle cry. For the Cupcakes. That’s terrible. Second, your platform is going to go up soon so unless you want to stay with us I recommend getting back on it.” 

The goat started but went back onto the platform. “Beware. All of you. I will have my revenge.”  And the platform carried up.

“Now that he is gone, how are we going to get out of here?” I said as the Nature Master got down from his vines. “I want you to call me Ivadon,” he said, “since we are going to be here a long time.” I started to look at the walls if there was a gap anywhere.  No luck.  Then I realized that the bars that were keeping us in had no lock. I checked. And double-checked. I was certain.   

So, I just pushed open the doors. Right then when I pushed open the doors loud alarms sounded. “Oh, I forgot to tell you,” Ivadon said.  “You can open the doors but that will set off a trigger that will set off the alarm.”  I didn’t listen. I rushed out the doors heading straight for the exit. “Oh, no you don’t,” said a voice.  There were five guards at every door holding spears. Then something weird happened…again. I heard a clap. Then the floor opened where the guards were standing and they fell in. “Leave him to me,” said a dark misty voice. Out came somebody who looked a lot like Ivadon except he had a dark hood. His body was gray instead of green and his eyes were pure evil.  

Chapter Seven
Berth

The person who looked like Ivadon said “I am Berth and I am the guardian of the ground eaters.” Then he clapped his hands and a hole opened under my feet. 

But, hearing this before, I jumped out of the way before the ground opened under my feet. “I knew it,” I said under my breath. Whenever this guy claps, the ground opens under his enemy’s feet.  

Ivadon stepped out of the cell. He snapped his fingers and a ton of vines blocked the space between me and the guardian of the ground eater. Then Ivadon ordered me to get into the air vent. Everyone got into the air vent. We got off at the control area.

There were guards in the control room but on the way over there Ivadon said two things. “When I use my vine power I waste all my energy. I should have more energy than this but when I was in that cell they have been using a special kind of iron that weakens my energy.” And he also said that he can get rid of the guards but that would get rid of all of his energy.  When we got into the control room. Ivadon snapped his fingers and the guards sailed out of the room. Suddenly the alarm started up and more guards poured into the room. “Nova, hack into the enemy’s system and delete their progress.  We’ll take care of the guards,” Ivadon said as he karate chopped a guard. I was going into battle when I saw a couple of guards knocked out. They had daggers and something else. I couldn’t tell exactly what they were but it had a pin in it so I assumed they were grenades. I didn’t have much time to think about it though because Berth stepped into the room. “Mwua hahaha,” Berth laughed and a giant hole opened up where Ivadon was standing a few seconds before. Ivadon jumped out of the way. He started jumping and dodging the holes that were opening. Then, I looked back at the grenades and grabbed them all.  “Ivadon, duck!” I yelled as I threw grenades at Berth. 

Ivadon said, “What are you doing?”  

My reply was “run!”  Everyone ran.  

Berth commented “Scaredy cats,” as he started approaching us. It was too late. The grenades exploded.  

The wall exploded crumbling down on Berth. “No,” he yelled as we escaped.

After ten minutes of running like a maniac, we slowed down to catch our breath. I asked Nova, “Did you stop their plans?”  

She responded “Yes. But maybe they’ll be back.”  

After another few minutes we were outside near the abandoned warehouse and a giant ship was next to us. Apparently, the place that we were in was a giant ship.  As we ran away, I turned back. I saw a door opening. Lex was standing there watching us. I couldn’t hear what he said but from the way his mouth was moving this is what I got. “We’ll be back. Oh, we’ll be back.”

Then he slammed the door and the ship blasted off away from Earth.  

 

The End