LA Story Part 3

Then, a Gatorade bottle appeared out of nowhere, and it dropped on the ground right by my feet. As usual, there was a message inside. It read "Don't be surprised if the factory disappears. It is still there, just camouflaged. Keep moving, you're almost there. -Prince Arthur"  Encouraged by the note, we kept walking.

A few minutes later, Reagan, who was in front, hit her head on what appeared to be just air. "Ouch," she said, laughing. "But I think we found the factory!"

Just then, the factory reappeared right in front of us. We laughed because my hand was just inches away from a doorknob on the tall building. I glanced at my friends, suddenly unsure about the whole adventure. What was lurking inside this building? Elsie looked as nervous as I did, but Reagan said: "Let's go!" I opened the door cautiously, not knowing what to expect.

Whatever I was expecting, I didn't find it. We stepped into a giant room. It must have once been the main room of the factory. At first, the dusty old room looked empty, but then I spotted something. In the far back corner, there was a surprisingly large cage, with metal bars around it. Nervously, I tiptoed over, Reagan and Elsie right behind me. Inside the cage were a bed, a small desk and chair, and a young man who looked just a few years older than me. The man looked up at us from the desk where he was sitting, and at once I knew that he must be the prince. His face had a sad look to it, but still a brave face, like I had always imagined a king should look.

"My rescuers!" he exclaimed, clearly happy to see us. "But you must move fast. Five minutes after the outside door is opened, the locks close on my dismal prison for five weeks before opening again. You must act now, or never save me."

I looked quickly at the locks and then spoke to my dependable team, who was waiting for instructions. "There are three locks. Elsie, try to open this one. Reagan, the second one, and I'll take the third one. Quick!"

Reagan was the first to open her lock. Three sports-related questions had to be answered correctly.  Elsie opened hers next by reciting five lines of a song from memory. "One minute," cautioned the prince, who was timing us.

"I got it!" I called. To open my lock, I had to correctly name all of the capitals of the South American countries. All of my reading and dreaming about travel helped, I guess. The prince pushed open the door to his cell, with tears of joy in his eyes.