Funville

Almost 20 years ago, Funville was a small and one of the most peaceful towns in the United States. About ¾ of its perimeter was surrounded by an enormous rain forest. The famous Police Commissioner Vince Gordon helped a lot with arresting criminals. He had a brilliant best friend, Dr. Tom Nguyen. He was an expert about Atomic Physics and radiation. Occasionally, Tom helped Vince when the case requires scientific explanation like the extraordinary event which happened to Funville.
One night, Commissioner Vince came home late from work. On the way, he saw a weird object on the sky. Sensing trouble, Vince got out of his car and took some pictures. He then immediately went to his friend’s house and gave him the pictures of the strange object. Dr. Tom examined them carefully. A moment later, he said, “Well, I think it is a meteor. And you’re right. It isn’t normal. Usually, meteors have yellow or red color. In this case, it’s giving off energy, obviously because of friction by the smoke. It has purple color,”
“What kind of element is it?”
“I’m afraid I’ve never seen or heard about it before,” said Tom anxiously.
Suddenly, a terrible sound broke the silence of the night. It was the sound of something crashing.
“It should be the meteor. Come on, Vince! Let’s discover some more about the strange meteor,” said Tom excitedly.
Police officers and fire fighters have arrived. Tom and Vince were astonished to see small meteors fell all over the town, created explosions. Suddenly, there was a big annoying sound of an airplane. A gigantic purple meteor flew above their heads and rapidly crashed into the forest that was a mile away. It created a big mushroom-like cloud.
“Please don’t tell me that we’re attacked by atomic weapons,” said a fire fighter nervously.
“Certainly,” said Dr. Tom, “We’d better hurry up if we want to discover its identity”.
A group of police officers followed Tom and Vince. They all rushed in their cars to the forest. When they arrived, there was the strange meteor. It was exactly like Tom’s description. But, it was unexpectedly hot.
“Why is it so hot? I feel like I’m in a blacksmith’s workshop,” an officer said with curiosity.
“Probably because of the explosion. Radiation is strong. Run! Before it’s too late!” said Tom worriedly.
A while later, a group of well prepared officers arrived.
They wore clothes which could protect them from the deadly radiation. Tom joined them. They gathered together to approach the meteor slowly and carefully. The meteor was amazingly elegant with bright purple color. It was spreading light around the area. Eventually, the officers felt that the air grew hot. They decided to put the radio active meteor into isolation and study it later.
“We’d better hurry up before the whole town gets cancer,” Tom suggested.
Saws arrived punctually for their plan. They began to use the saws to cut down the enormous meteor. While they were doing it, they created friction. Evidently, the meteor made an energy circle and violently threw all of the officers away. Fortunately, none of them were wounded. However, they had to take off their special clothes immediately if they didn’t want to be heated. Tom realized that they were thrown hundreds of yards away form the meteor.
“Everyone in this town must evacuate as soon as possible. That meteor is strong enough to mutate the whole town,” said Tom dutifully.
“What a good advice! But first, we need to calm the people down, explain for them. Then, we can start the evacuation,” said Vince.
“Please hurry up! We don’t have much time,” said Tom nervously.
“We’ll take good care of it. Come one, guys! Let’s do it!” Vince said with confidence.
They spread out. They went throughout Funville and explained their problem to the people. They tried to persuade them the leave immediately. A moment later, people got out the street and started to leave the town. A monstrous figure appeared in front of them. Them came closer and realized it was a gigantic rabbit. I wasn’t cute. Instead, it appeared to be a carnivore with sharp large teeth. It growled and started to chase them. The people ran around, mad with fear. Some officers shot at the monster. But their bullets could not harm the rabbit. A farmer took out a hunting gun and fired violently at it right on the head. Fortunately, it fell and died. Everybody was glad that the monster was vulnerable and their troubles were over. However, the big trouble had just begun.
Suddenly, people heard a terrible sound of metal and cement breaking. A gigantic green rope started to cover the skyscraper and threw away the nearest cars. They were all paralyzed with amazement. Eventually, Vince realized that the gigantic green rope was in reality, vivacious and destructive ivy.
“Be careful! This monster can attack you from any side,” Vince shouted aggressively.
“Can you identify what that is?” asked Tom curiously.
“I supposed it is mutated ivy,” Vince replied.
“Well, obviously our mysterious visitor is making troubles,” said Tom seriously.
A few officers opened fire at the destructive ivy but they couldn’t harm it. Several smaller ropes tied some people up unexpectedly and pulled them to the same direction rapidly. Vince followed them for a distance, worried about what might happen to the innocent people. Finally, he found a mysterious dark hole on the ground near the forest. He was a little anxious but still decided to find the missing ones. He climbed down slowly. Eventually, he reached the bottom of the hole. He observed it carefully and figured out it was a strange cave which he had never seen before. It was dark but as he went deeper into the cave, he saw several points of light. It was light of a new species of Venus trapper plant which used light to tempt insects. Vince got his gun prepared for emergency. Suddenly, he heard a terrible sound of a person shouting, “Help!” He rushed blindly at that location. Then, he found a group of people tied up and pulled by a horrific creature. Vince immediately opened fire at the monster but his bullets were useless. Some ropes grabbed his legs and pulled him to the monster’s position. He fought back hopelessly to escape. As he looked at the monster, he saw an object was thrown to its mouth. It gave out a painful cry, dried out and died. Now, Vince and those people were able to escape. Surprisingly, Vince saw his friend, Dr. Tom.
“Explanations later, Vince. We don’t have much time,” Tom apologized for his unexpected appearance seriously.
Tom arrived by a rope so it was easy for them to get out of the hole. They rushed into the city. People there were still fighting with the destructive ivy. It was difficult to cut it down because it was too strong. Tom took out a small bomb and threw it directly to the plant’s stem. This caused the plant to stop attacking people.
“Everybody run, run as fast as you can for your lives before it’s too late!” Tom shouted.
“In order, please. Do not walk on each other!” an officer told them.
As they were finishing the evacuation, they saw an airplane flying above their heads to the direction of the meteor. The people tried their best to escape as quickly as they can. When they’re at the safe distance, Tom took out his phone and say,” Now, guys!” They looked back and saw the airplane, flying at great speed, dropped something on the meteor. The meteor reacted violently, created a terrible explosion with a mushroom-like cloud. The local people were frozen with amazement. One of them said,” That doesn’t look good”
“Certainly,” Tom replied.
* * *
It was a cold, foggy night when Vince came over to visit Tom. They were glad to see each other again. Vince asked,” What did you throw into the monster’s mouth when I was in the cave?”
“A bottle of high quality fungicide,” Tom replied with a smile.
“And what did the airplane drop on the meteor?”
“Water,”
“What? English, please!”
“I know it sounds funny but it’s true,” Tom laughed.
“Let me explain for you. Our visitor is made of an unknown element. It is reactive with water. Water molecules love to stick together. I used this characteristic to break it down into usable elements and you know what happens when we split an atom,”
“But how could you know that?”
“When fire fighters took care of the small explosions in town, I saw the reaction so I asked them to use an airplane and drop water on our visitor. I also know about its atoms because I’ve examined it with an electron microscope,”
“Unbelievable!” Vince exclaimed, “Excellent job!”
“It was quiet simple and I was lucky,” said Tom, “You also did a satisfactory job, my friend. I heard that there’s an adventurous movie. Would you like to give it a try tonight?”