Here goes.
Kaydence (last name)8/2/16
The Deadly Computer Virus
One day Jule was on her laptop when she came across an evil pop-up ad. "Hey, this actually looks pretty cool," Jule said to herself. Without thinking Jule shamelessly clicked on the ad. Jule had no idea that pop-up ads could be dangerous. Jule, thinking she was going to get an informational article, was sent to a page of error codes and a link that reads, "Do you want a free new cell phone?" and being the desperate 11-year-old she was, Jule clicked the link.
The link sent Jule to a page where she would fill out her information. After she was done her laptop crashed. "Woah, I wonder what happened!" Jule said out loud. Jule tried to open her browser again, but nothing happened. After a few minutes of trying Jule finally managed to somehow open it.
Everything seemed normal. Jule noticed that she had been logged out of her accounts. "No biggie," Jule said as she attempted to log into one of her accounts. "Incorrect password?" She read, confused. Jule has never gotten her password wrong but she tried again anyway. Once again, it was incorrect. Jule decides to go slowly and look at the keyboard. It was still incorrect.
Jule didn't know what was going on. She clicked on her home screen when suddenly lots of pop-up ads filled it. "Wh-what’s going on?!" Jule panicked. Soon after the pop-up ads started popping up, Jule noticed a small new file in the shape of… Something oddly familiar. She didn't know what it was. She just assumed it was just an update for one of her files that she never used anymore. Jule was scared.
"MOM!" Jule called out of frustration. "What is it, Julie?" Jule’s mom asked as she walked into her room. "OH MY GOSH!"
It was obvious that Jules mom had seen all the pop-up ads. "Julie, how did you manage to get a virus on your laptop for the three minutes I was gone? That has to be a world record!" Jule’s mom moaned as she approached her laptop. "Hmm, looks pretty bad. You better go to sleep. We'll fix this problem in the morning." Jules's mother said with a worried look on her face.
Jule tried to get some rest but she couldn't stop thinking about that oddly familiar file. Jule was up almost all night when she noticed her laptop was glowing a bright red from the inside. Curious, Jule got up and opened her laptop. That file Jule had noticed earlier was much, much bigger than it was before. Because of this, Jule could observe the shape a little easier, but that wasn't important to her at the moment.
"How is it moving…?" Jule asked herself. The file had an animation that looked rather terrifying. It looked like a mutating creature. The creature was still very familiar to Jule! She just didn't know how or why. Why? Jule thought.
Curious, Jule opened the weird file. What in the world…? Are those… Wingdings? Jule thought. Jule didn't know how to read them. She was far too tired to look it up. Then Jule realized that it wasn't written in just any old wingdings! These were glitchy. Red and black, they bounced around the screen. It was hard to even see what they spelled out, even if you do know how to read them. Jule decided her mom was right and she should probably get some sleep.
Jule didn’t have any trouble getting to sleep because she really didn’t want to even be involved with this whole “virus” thing. Jule didn’t even think it was really a virus. “Virus” eh? That doesn’t seem like one to me... It’s probably just a little error. It'll all be better in the morning. I’ll just restart my laptop! Jule thought.
It was 5:00 A.M. when Jule woke up. It wasn’t long since she had checked her laptop. “Ugh, what a terrible dream… But a lot of that stuff seemed so familiar! Why am I seeing all this stuff... It’s all so… WEIRD!” Jule muttered to herself.
Jule felt like she was being watched. Suddenly she felt someone breathing on her back. Jule turned around to see if there was anyone behind her. “ACK!” Jule screamed. “Wait! You’re that thing on my computer, and now that I think about it, you’re that thing from my dream, too!” Jule had no idea what to do. She was so tired of this thing coming into her life. She threw a hard punch at the disgusting looking creature. To her surprise, she actually felt something when she swung her fist at it. Jule thought that she was just hallucinating. Terrified, she grabbed her baseball bat from the side of her bed, jumped up, and backed up to a wall.
“I’M WARNING YOU! IF YOU TAKE ONE MORE STEP, I WILL HIT YOU!” Jule threatened.
The creature was obviously hurt by the punch from earlier. It wasn’t afraid of Jule, but it couldn’t understand her words. The creature not knowing it was going to get hit, slowly approached her. *SMACK!* “What? Did you think I was joking? What do you want from me, you monster?!” Jule furiously asked the creature. “????!!!!!!” She didn’t understand what the creature was trying to say. “JULIE WHY ARE YOU MAKING SO MUCH NOISE? DO YOU HAVE FRIENDS OVER? ITS WAY TOO EARLY FOR THAT!” Jule’s mom complained. “You better not say a WORD, am I clear?” Jule scolded the creature. It didn’t know what she was trying to say but it definitely got the hint.
“Um actually, mom I think you should come in here and see for yourself! I really don’t know how I am going to explain this!” Jule replied. A few seconds later her mom arrived in her room. Her mom was very tired and a little annoyed.
“Oh. My. Goodness. Julie, I think I’m seeing things, it’s not the time I usually wake up and I haven’t had my coffee yet. Just tell me what happened later before I go to work. I’m sure I can fix your problem after we get this virus thing settled down. Or maybe you can talk to your babysitter, Luna.” Jule’s mom suggested.
“Wait, mom-” Jule attempted to tell her mom that she wasn’t seeing things but the second she looked her mom was gone. “Well, it looks like it’s just you and me. I don’t know what to do with you right now, but until I do you will be staying in here.” She explained as she pushed the creature into her closet. “Oh and don’t even think about trying to get out because you’re obviously weak, so I’ve put a lock on the door as well as a wooden plank. You shouldn’t be able to break out of that.” Jule said as she climbed into bed. “Goodnight, you better get some rest because in the morning you’re going to have a bad time.” Later that day when Jule had woken up she noticed a huge hole in her closet door. “OH NO! IT MUST HAVE ESCAPED!” Jule panicked. “Oh, so I see it doesn’t know how to open windows…” Jule noticed as she looked over to her window. There was a huge hole in it. Jule took a glance at her clock, it was already four. As big of a reaction Jule would usually have, with everything going on, she didn’t care. There was a note next to Jule on her bed. She read it, and it said “Hello, Julie! You were asleep for a long time. I heard two loud crashes so I came up to your room to check on you. When I came in there were two large holes! One in your closet door, and the other in your wall. I decided not to do anything since I am just your babysitter and I don’t know anything about what you would do. I am downstairs watching T.V. on the couch, come see me when you wake up. -Luna”
Jule decided to listen to the note from her babysitter and went downstairs. “Um, Luna? I got the note. Did you need anything?” Jule asked, kind of nervous. “Oh yes! Hello, Julie! Erm.. I just need to know, did you make those big holes?” Luna asked suspiciously. “Um no, actually! Don’t worry about it, though! I’ve got it under control!” Jule replied like nothing was wrong. “Well, Okay, then sweetie! I contacted your mother about the problem, she should be home soon!” Luna cheered.
Jule hadn’t planned on her mother coming home early, especially at a time like this. She had no idea that the creature was going to break out of her closet. She thought about it, and maybe the creature knew you shouldn’t use your strongest attack first, and with that, she knew this battle wasn’t going to be easy.
“Oh no! I just realized I missed school! You’re only supposed to be here after that!” Jule exclaimed. “Oh do not worry Julie, we just called you in sick. One of your friends is actually waiting for you in the kitchen! I think they might have your homework.” Luna explained. Jule nodded and went to the kitchen.
“Oh hey, Jule! I heard you weren’t feeling well. I hope you’re okay!” Jules's friend, Kate said. “Actually, I’m not sick. I just slept in for a very long time and my mom must have forgotten to wake me up. My mom or Luna just made up an excuse” She explained to Kate. “Oh well, that’s a relief! Well, you missed the lesson today. I need to help you with your homework. Where shall we start?” Kate said happily.
Jule looked around to make sure nobody was listening. “Kate, I need you to promise me that you will NOT tell anybody what I am about to tell YOU.” She asked, kind of desperately. Kate put her hands up and nodded. “There was this weird creature in my room. It was on my laptop and I see it in my dreams. I thought I was hallucinating. I reached out to.. Touch it and to my surprise, I actually felt something! Knowing me, of course, I was really scared so I hit it with my bat. I didn’t hit it hard though. I nicely asked for it to go in my closet and then I locked it in there. What happened next, well I want you to see for yourself.” Jule explained
“Jule, as crazy as that sounds, I do want to believe you, but knowing you, I really don’t think you were that nice to this ‘creature’ that supposedly just appeared in your room.” Kate disagreed. “Okay, maybe I wasn’t THAT nice to the creature, but I am being honest when I say this, I did see it, and I DID lock it in my closet! You have to believe me!” Jule said, still sounding desperate. “Alright, now, let’s go see what happened next because I really want to know!” Kate begged.
The girls went upstairs to go see the big holes in Jules room. “JULE! What happened!?” Kate asked, in fear. “Well, this is what I was talking about. The weird creature must have broken out or something… I can’t let that thing do any damage to the rest of the city. Why? Because people are going to want to know where it came from. I really am not up for all of that.” Jule said quietly. “So are you just telling me this because why not or do you need something? I’m guessing you need something because you wouldn’t be telling me all this if you didn’t need anything.” Kate hopingly asked. “Hey, I’m not like that! But yes, I do need something. I was hoping you could help me-” Jule was trying to ask Kate something when she interrupted. “OH. MY. GOODNESS. WHY WOULDN’T I WANT TO HELP YOU?!” Kate shouted. “Shhh, not so loud!” Jule hissed. “Anyway, I was hoping you could help me find this creature. It’s loose somewhere in the city and I need to take this thing down. You got here on your bike did you not?” She asked. Kate nodded to signal that she did come on her bike. “Then let’s go! But first, we need to get prepared. Grab that wooden plank and my plastic sword. It might not seem like much but we’ll get better stuff on the trip. Put them in your backpack.” Jule said as she placed her baseball bat and a bendable metal clothes hanger in her backpack. Kate nodded in agreement.
Jule and Kate had no idea where they were going, but they got on their bikes and rode off together anyway. “So, where should we start?” Jule asked. “ Well if anything I thought you would know. But I think we should head to the center of town. It might have gone over there.” Kate replied. “Okay so here’s the plan. When we find it, we should get it to follow us to th-” Jule was once again, interrupted by Kate. “Wait. So you’re telling me that we have to get a possibly dangerous creature to follow us? I guess I’m in with the plan but that sounds really dangerous. What if I get hurt?” “If it’s faster than us we’ll find out before we get out of the main part of the city. So let’s say our plan backfires. Lots of people live in the main part of the city and they wouldn’t try to help us unless they knew we were in trouble. So we’re just going to lead it to that one abandoned gas station in the middle of nowhere. But if it makes you feel safer, we could cycle around for a little bit.” Jule explained. “No need. It sounds like you’ve got this whole thing figured out.” Kate said.
The ride took some time. On the way, Jule had found a crowbar and decided to keep her clothes hanger. Kate had found a nail so she inserted it into the wooden plank. Jule had given her baseball bat to Kate because it was obviously stronger than a plastic sword. The girls stopped at a nearby grocery store to pick up some $1 snacks. They didn’t have enough money to get anything either of them could use to defend themselves. Finally, Kate and Jule had seen the creature.
“Oh, I see nobody is outside today! The creature definitely isn’t causing a commotion. This should be easy. Just in case we should still go to that abandoned gas station, though.” Jule noticed. “Okay. Good idea. I was really expecting the whole town to be panicked because of this weird creature you speak of. I really wasn’t expecting it to look so dull though. I thought it would have lots of colors on it, but nope! Just Green error codes with black behind them. The shape isn’t even recognizable to anyone! It really needs a makeover.” Kate complained. “Would you stop your complaining and just get its attention?” Jule hissed. Kate didn’t even reply to Jule before she pulled out her laptop and screamed “HEY VIRUS MONSTER! LOOK AT MY PERFECTLY FINE LAPTOP!” Jule just gave her a look that says “really” but surprisingly it worked. The creature started following them, just as planned. It’s just…. Very, Very, Slowly. Jule and Kate actually had to get off their bikes and walk them because if they used their bikes the creature wouldn’t be able to keep up.
After what seemed like hours of walking, the girls and the creature reached their destination. “O-okay! We’re here! Jule… Pass me a w-water!” Kate stuttered. “Kate! You’re being way too overdramatic! If you need a water just ask!” Jule scolded while passing Kate a water. “Well finally! Thank you!”
“So... Are we going to fight this thing or what?” Kate said, clearly confused. Jule quickly ran up to the creature and hit it with her crowbar. She thought it was just going to get hurt, like what had happened back in her room. But this time, that didn’t happen. This time it multiplied. You would expect the multiplied parts to be smaller, but NO! These were somehow bigger. “GREAT! Now there are three of these things? I regret even coming with you. I have to admit, though, that was pretty sick!” Kate said. “I do agree with you, Kate. On both parts. I regret taking you. All you do is complain!” Jule replied, semi-seriously. Kate tried hitting the creature with her wooden plank. They all split into three more creatures each. “Kate! What are you doing!? Did you not just see me do the same thing?!” Jule screamed. “Jule, can’t you see? There obviously has to be a stopping point to the multiplying! Look! Those were smaller this time!” Kate explained. “You actually make a good point! Oh no! It's getting dark, we should head home!” Jule said.
The girls hopped on their bikes and went to Jule’s house. When they got there they noticed Luna and Jules mother “talking”. “How could you let this happen!? Somebody could’ve gotten hurt!” Jules mom screamed in anger. “I’m sorry Ms. Sparks, I will not let it happen again. Please do not fire me.” Luna pleaded. Jules mom sighed. “I’m not going to fire you, simply because we cannot afford to hire a new everyday babysitter. I will give you mercy. Do not let this happen again, do you hear?” Jule’s mother scolded. Luna nodded and got her stuff to leave.
“Wait, mom! Please just forget about it! I don’t know what happened but I do know Luna had nothing to do with it. You might have spared her job but you need to spare her feelings too. Forgive her. ” Jule pleaded. “Okay fine. I do forgive you, Luna. But if that ever happens again you’re fired.” Luna nodded and left. “Wow Jule, your mom sure can be cold,” Kate whispered.
The girls walked up to Jule’s room to see the holes already repaired. After a while of talking about random stuff, the girls start on Jule’s homework. They barely finish before 2:00 A.M. but they make it. After the long night of doing homework and talking about the creature, they didn’t have enough time to do anything fun, so they just went to bed. The next morning Kate and Jule woke up and got to school. What happened next was surprising. “Hey, Kate and Jule! I think I saw you guys yesterday in town! Who was chasing you?” The girls were greeted by a friend. “We actually don’t really know. Don’t worry though, it wasn’t a harm to us. It won’t come back.” Kate lied.
“Oh, you guys saw that? I didn’t think anyone was watching. As Kate said, though, it wasn’t important!” Jule said worryingly.
“Are you sure? You sound like you’re hiding something.” One of Jule’s friends asked. Kate looked at Jule as if she were to say, “Look what you did now, why did you even say anything?” to her. Jule shrugs. She mouths back the word “sorry” and turns her attention back to her friends.
Jule is horrible at keeping secrets, meaning she automatically told them everything. “Why didn’t you just say so? I want to help! I could do things!” One of Jule’s friends, Max, suggested. Jule and Kate stand in shock as their friends offer to help. After a while, Jule gives in.
Jule examines the group of her friends standing before her and thinks. There are three of them, making five altogether. Two girls and one guy. If I do some thinking, I could make this work. Finally, Jule makes a decision. “Max, you can fight, right? Don’t worry if you can’t, for now, we’re using weapons anyway. You can fight the creature with me and Kate.” Jule continues. “Zoey, you can help with packing. Obviously, we’re going to need someone to pack food and stuff like that. You can help fight too, but less. But I would be leaving out Tyra, wouldn’t I? Hmm, let's see... Tyra, you can keep track of time, AND you should be the one who decides where we’re going and the directions. You’ll also need to make sure we don’t run into anyone we know or the police. Can you handle all that?” Tyra nods in approvement. “Alright then,” Jule goes on. “Does that sound good?” Everyone except Kate nods excitedly.
“Don’t I get a say in this? Kate ask. Everyone shouts “No” at Kate when class begins. Jule, Kate, Max, Zoey, and Tyra all take their seats and start class. It's history, so Jule isn’t really having the time of her life. Max even manages to fall asleep for half the lesson! Finally, though, it’s time for recess!
During recess, the five of them met up with each other to discuss some things. “Aw man! I just realized that I’m hanging out with a bunch of girls!” Max complains. Slightly insulted, Kate playfully punches him in the arm.
“Alright guys, so let’s meet up at my house tomorrow after school. Today I’ve got baseball practice until 7:30.” Jule tells the group. “Alright. I think while we have time we should prepare. My dad has this really cool sword thingy I think I could bring. I mean, he did hang it on MY wall so why not? It’s basically like he was giving it to me anyway.” Max planned. “Wow, that’s really cool Max! I didn’t know you had a sword in your room. Maybe I could come by and check it out sometime!” Jule exclaimed. “I know, pretty cool right. You don’t even have to come by and see it, I’m bringing it tomorrow, remember?” Max reminded Jule. “You could still come by if you would like, though.” This time, he ended his sentence with a wink.
“Good idea, Max. I guess I should stop at the grocery store and pick up some snacks and a small cooler since I'm going to be the one in charge of that!” Zoey said.“I should do the same” Tyra adds. “I’m going to need a GPS or map to be able to know where we’re going. I don’t think I will need anything else. However, I do have a question. How are we traveling? Do we have to walk or…?”
“Actually, Tyra, we haven’t thought of that yet. I think we are just goings to walk, the creature is, like, really, super slow. We don’t need our bikes or anything, but we need a way home. We might need to bring them, just in case.” Kate suggest
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