The Mysterious Wheelchair

Chapter 5: Zuphixy and Purpleten Escape

Once the men had left Zuphixy he tried to see if he could get untied. At first it did not work. He kept on trying and made himself so tired that he fell asleep. He was awakened by the sound of male voices yelling. Remembering where he was, he heard the voice of Mr. Oidohombre asking Purpleten, “Are you trying to get rid of us Oidohombres so the spell will be broken?” Zuphixy could not hear Purpleten’s answer. Zuphixy thought to himself, “I must get out of here and find a way to free Purpleten as well.”

Zuphixy tried one more time to get free using a trick that his father had shown him. This time Zuphixy freed himself from the rope that had been tied around his arms. Unfortunately, as soon as he had his arms free and was starting to use his ID card to unlock the door he heard another door slam shut. The click sounded the same as the other door that had been locked.

He stopped what he was doing and waited for the men to come into his room. When they didn’t come, Zuphixy tried again to use his ID card to unlock his door. It worked!

He crept out into the hall and went to the next room where he figured Purpleten was. Zuphixy used the ID card again to unlock her door. As soon as he opened the door, he found Purpleten crying and tied up.

Hearing footsteps coming, he quickly hid in a closet. One man came in and gave Purpleten what looked like dog food and then left. Zuphixy came out of his hiding place in the closet and untied Purpleten. “Are you going to eat that food or should we try to escape now?”

Purpleten whispered, “Let’s get out while we can. I think they are eating their supper. Now is the best time to leave.”

Zuphixy and Purpleten crept out of the room and down the hall. They silently snuck past the room where they saw the men. The men had their backs to the door and did not see them.

Zuphixy and Purpleten managed to get outside where the sun shone down on them so strongly that it took a few minutes for their eyes to get used to the brightness.

Purpleten saw a whole row of heart-shaped flowers and picked one. As soon as she did so, she and Zuphixy heard dogs barking. Without thinking Zuphixy grabbed Purpleten and started to run as fast as he could. He stopped one step from walking off a cliff. Turning around, Zuphixy saw two dogs running towards them with their teeth showing.

Luckily, Zuphixy had some of Rugger’s dog treats in his pocket. Zuphixy tossed each dog a handful of the treats. This gave him and Purpleten time to run to the raft and get across to the other side of the river before the dogs started after them again. Luck was still on their side because the dogs turned around at the river and went back to the house.

“Just because the dogs stopped chasing us does not mean we are free. Let’s run and see how far ahead of the Oidohombres we can get,” said Purpleten.

They started to run. When they got back to the Hill of Death they had to walk up it so slowly it felt as if they weren’t moving at all. Purpleten started to cry when she heard dogs barking in the distance.

They finally reached the spot where the tree had fallen. This time when they tried to get around the tree Zuphixy’s shoe got stuck in some mud. But that did not slow them down because Zuphixy just left his shoe behind and ran on in his stocking feet.

Zuphixy and Purpleten were so scared that they did not feel tired at all. They kept running late into the night until their bodies were so weak that they could not run any more. Exhausted, they fell asleep. Much later they awakened. Something or someone was touching them. At first they thought they were dreaming until they heard a friendly voice say, “Get up! You must come at once.”

A whole crowd of wheelchair people had gathered around them. They had what looked like a bed on wheels for Zuphixy. What looked like a tow truck hook was attached to Purpleten’s wheels. Once Zuphixy was on the bed and Purpleten’s wheels were hooked up good and tight they all left down the zigzag path.

After what seemed like forever they came out of the woods into a field where the group of wheelchair people finally stopped and gave Purpleten and Zuphixy some food.

Purpleten introduced Zuphixy to all the wheelchair people.

“The wheelchair that is all red with yellow hair is my dad and the all blue wheelchair is my mom. The wheelchair that is green and blue is my uncle and the one that is all black is Mr. Black, my schoolteacher. The one which is blue with red stripes is Mr. Stripe, the police chief from my town.”

Once they had finished eating and Purpleten had introduced everyone they got up and started walking through field after field after field until the day ended. Everyone except for the police chief went to sleep.

Now you probably are wondering why the policeman did not get to sleep. Well, he had decided that someone should keep watch in case the Oidohombres came and attacked. Thankfully, none of the Oidohombres came all that night.

In the morning, Zuphixy and Purpleten and their rescuers arrived in what looked like any town you might find in Canada except that all the houses had ramps to get into them. Purpleten’s father and her uncle took Purpleten and Zuphixy to the hospital to make sure that Purpleten and Zuphixy were in good health.