Black Numos Island by Maggie Morris, Alaina Fulkerson (best motivational books for students .TXT) 📕

tell anyone!) and they got too close to a mother rattlesnake’s babies. The snake had lashed out and bit the girl on the toe. The girl barely survived and had to have her toe surgically removed before the poison reached her other body parts. She was whisked away after the accident and Steve never saw her again.

Having been frozen in memory, Steve didn’t notice when the snake slid up to him and began making slow circles around his foot. Suddenly, Steve snapped out of his flashback and shrieked loudly. Using quick reflexes, Steve snapped his wrist at the snake, releasing the knife in mid-air. The weapon sailed through the air and plunked into the ground-right next to the snake. Steve was really scared now. He stood there a second, debating what he should do next; take his chances with a poisonous reptile, or spend the night in the woods. He chose the woods.

Turning around quickly, Steve sped away into the lush green undergrowth of the tropical forest.

 

 

Empty Seats

 

The three siblings snuck into the plane together and hid in one of the five bathrooms (first class of course).

"Ew, I'm NOT sitting on the toilet! I'm going to be by the window," Emily said in disgust. Luke shrugged and sat by the door. Rather grumpily, Sam sat on the toilet. He made his siblings swear they would never speak of this to anyone, and reluctantly, they agreed. The kids chatted for a few minutes, and then sat in silence until they fell asleep.

Luke woke up abruptly to a wailing sound coming from outside the bathroom. Quickly he slid the VACANT slot on the door over to OCCUPIED. He pressed his ear against the door and listened to the conversation.

"Well you two, guess you don't get any food right now. The other bathrooms are ‘OCCUPIED’," a woman sighed sarcastically. He heard two babies cry out in hunger. He felt terrible; the poor woman needed a bathroom for her babies and he, Emily, and Sam were taking up one of the bathrooms. Luke stood up, and turning to wake his siblings. Suddenly, the plane stopped moving. His siblings woke up with a start.

“W-what’s going on?” Emily stammered. She looked down, and at her dismay she saw that the air vessel was falling straight down. Just then, Emily flew up into the air. It was her first time experiencing zero-gravity, so she didn’t know what to do. She saw that her brothers were being flattened against the ceiling as well. All of a sudden, the plane shook violently, and Emily was tossed at the roof of the bathroom. Her head made a loud crack as it hit the light. The light bulb flickered softly and then went out.

“EMILY!” Luke and Sam shouted in unison. The brothers’ ears were popping repeatedly, and they could hear the liquid waste in the toilet sloshing around. Luke started to worry very badly. Sam had squeezed his eyes shut tight, which he only did when he was uncontrollably scared.

Luke knew that this was probably the end. Emily was unconscious, Sam was useless in his scared state, and Luke was freaking out like crazy.

The plane is about to crash! Luke said to himself. As if nothing had happened, the plane suddenly stopped with a last horrible shake. Luke crashed to the ground and steadily got up, checking himself for broken bones. Sam opened his eyes.

“Lukey, is Em’ gonna’ be okay?” Sam asked worriedly, talking like a baby. Luke understood why his brother was acting like this, and wished he could do it himself, but he knew someone had to take charge. The twins came out of the bathroom and saw empty seats. Luke tripped and felt around for something he could use to pull himself back up, and then he saw that the young woman and her two children were lying on the floor, dead. He choked back a sob.

Together Sam and Luke went to see if the polite was alive, but were not surprised that he was dead. The scene of all the dead bodies was so tragic, even Sam couldn’t think this was cool.

With sudden awareness, Luke thought to himself, We are all alone. Knowing they had to leave the plane, Luke searched for the emergency exit side door. Finally spotting it, Luke put on a disgusted face and pulled away the dead man who was laying against the door. Wincing as the man thudded into the aisle, Luke shoved open the exit door.

“Sam, go get Em’. Bring her back here, and carry her if you need to,” Luke ordered. Sam jogged down the aisle and back to the restroom. A minute later, he showed up pulling Emily down the aisle.

“Be careful, Sam!” Luke shouted. “That’s your sister who you’re dragging!”

“Well, I’m not going to be able to carry her!” Sam grunted, breathing heavily. “She’s heavy!”

As soon as Sam laid Emily at Luke’s feet, Luke slipped one of the pink pills the doctor had prescribed for Emily into her mouth.

Then he said, "We need to find a safe place to rest. We can take turns carrying Emily."

After cautiously stepping on the branch that the plane was on, the brothers began climbing down the tree, their bones aching from being jostled around so much.

When they finally reached the ground,they set down Emily. Sam and Luke rested in the broad sunlight, the sun warming their skin.

"Why can't she wake up? I don't want to carry her anymore!" Sam whined. As if on cue, Emily woke up. She rubbed her eyes.

"What happened?" Emily asked.

"Well, we-" Emily's scream interrupted Sam's explanation. Slithering towards them was a small green snake. Sam grinned.

He had always wanted pet snake, so he said, "Let's keep her. We can name her..." He thought for a moment.

"Natasha!"

"Sam, that's not a good idea." Luke said warily. "That's a mamba. They're poison-"

"Quick, she's getting away!" Sam yelled, cutting Luke off Natasha started slithering away. Sam followed her, but Emily stayed put. Luke ran towards Sam to stop him but forgot his sister, so he went back and started pulling Emily by the arm towards Sam. Luke would have already stopped Sam, but his sister was slowing him down.When they caught up with Sam, the snake-Natasha-was already curled up happily on his shoulders. Luke relaxed a little because she seemed harmless, and she looked fairly young.

All of a sudden, Natasha slid down and started gliding through the jungle again. Luke sighed and following Natasha. Sam and Emily joined him in the chase. Finally, the snake stopped next to a small clearing. In the clearing, there was a bubbling spring.Suddenly, Emily gasped. There was a man asleep in the water. A knife lay glinting in the sun.

"I need to get that knife!" Sam whispered. "Whoever that man is could hurt us!" Sam tiptoed silently towards the knife. Luke had to stuff his fist in his mouth to stop himself from screaming at Sam. But, Sam returned safely in a few seconds. Just then, the man woke up.

Luke whispered nervously, "If he gets out, we run. And don't drop the knife!" He looked around, bewildered, for his knife. Then, he climbed out and started walking over to the kids' hiding spot.

"He's awake! Go, go, GO!" Emily shouted. Natasha started sliding away.

"Follow her!" The siblings ran after their snake for the third time that day. Natasha slid in all different directions. It was then that Luke realized how smart the new pet really was. She was trying to throw their pursuer off track! As the trio started to get tired, Natasha finally straightened out her path, and Luke saw their destination-a mountain. Natasha slowed to a stop beside a rock. Luke and Emily followed slowly behind, breathing heavily. Sam peered around the side of the rock and let out a gasp of surprise.

 

Kids

 

Steve decided to take bath in a nearby spring to calm his nerves. He couldn’t shake the thought of how close he had come to dying. Steve could still picture the snake with her mouth open, fangs revealed. He continued to think about his near-death experience on his walk to the stream.

The trip took less than five minutes, but Steve was ready to jump into the water as soon as he got there. Five minutes of thinking about a snake was five minutes longer than he wanted to think about snakes. As soon as the spring came into view, Steve started jogging. Just in case the snake came back, just in case he had to run, Steve left on his clothes. He slid into the water.

"Ahhhh," he sighed happily. The water was steaming hot, but it felt perfect, and it relaxed Steve. Before long, he had forgotten about the green snake and had fallen asleep. He began to snore loudly, causing birds to squawk in alarm. A sudden sound woke up Steve.

"Who's there?" He said, for the second time that day.

"I have a knife," he warned. Steve reached for his knife. When his hand didn’t touch the knife, though, he slid out of the water. His clothes were dripping so much, the ground right below almost instantly turned into mud. Just then, Steve saw his knife glinting in the sunlight. He reached out his hand and his fingers closed on something, but it wasn't his knife.

"A candy wrapper!" He exclaimed. Maybe there are more survivors, he thought. Suddenly, the leaves on the outer edge of the jungle shook. Steve began to run cautiously towards the leaves, his shoes squeaking with every step. As he got closer, he heard two voices. Just as he had suspected, there were other human beings on his island-well, other than dead people.

One of the voices whisper-shouted, “Don’t drop the knife!” Steve was really angry now. They had stolen his knife! The knife that his mother's mother had been given by her mother!

“No one steals my knife and lives to tell the tale!” Steve yelled, trying to sound scary.

"He's awake! Go, go, GO!" A different voice called out. Steve kicked into his highest gear. Just as he finally thought he had caught them, he burst into a clearing. There was no one there

“Where are you?” He taunted, continuing to run. Steve's lungs were beginning to ache. Growing very weary, Steve slowed to a stop.

“Come out and let me see you!” He called out.But, Steve knew he had lost the people. He glanced around warily and sadly. Then, he realized where he was-or, didn't realize where he was.

“Where am I?” He said, almost as if he didn’t want