Read Online War of the World Records by Matthew Ward - Free Book Online

“are you even remotely familiar with the basic rules of hide-and-seek? After tagging someone on the hiding team, a member of the seeking team escorts the captured hider back to base.”
    Ruby looked puzzled. “And why would you want to do that?”
    â€œBecause I’ve got to help my family stop yours from breaking the record for Longest Time to Remain Hidden in a Hide-and-Seek Match,” Arthur explained. “I know that sort of thing might not matter much to you, but it does to me. It’s bad enough I’ve never broken a world record of my own . . .”
    â€œWhy is that so important to you, Arthur?” Ruby shot back. “World records aren’t so great, you know.”
    â€œThat’s easy for you to say; you’ve already broken one.”
    Ruby sighed. “I wish I could give my record back.”
    â€œYou’re not serious.”
    â€œYou’d wish the same thing if you’d broken the record I have.”
    â€œBut I don’t know what record you’ve broken. Remember how you’ve never told me, no matter how many times I’ve asked?”
    â€œBelieve me,” said Ruby, shaking her head, “you don’t want to know.”
    â€œBut I really do want to know,” insisted Arthur. “And to be honest, I think it’s a bit weird you won’t just tell me.”
    â€œRex and Rita would be seriously angry,” Ruby scowled. “God knows, I’ve already shamed them enough—just ask them.”
    â€œI can’t see how you could have shamed them so much, being a successful world-record breaker. And anyway, isn’t it sort of your mission in life to make your parents angry?”
    Ruby contemplated this a moment, then narrowed her eyes. “Do you promise not to tell another soul as long as you live?”
    â€œI promise,” said Arthur.
    â€œDo you swear to gouge out your eyes and swallow them whole if you ever do?”
    â€œI swear.”
    The truth was Arthur had often considered gouging out his eyes and swallowing them whole, as a last-ditch attempt at getting his name in the
Grazelby Guide
—but he didn’t mention this to Ruby.
    After an extended pause, Ruby drew a deep breath and looked Arthur straight in the eye. “Well . . .”
    At that moment, there was a bloodcurdling scream.
    In his sudden confusion, Arthur could not tell whether the scream had come from the girl in front of him or from some other source. When he heard the next scream a split second later, it was clear it had not been Ruby.
    â€œWhat on earth was that?!” she cried.
    Arthur’s face was now pale and panic-stricken. “I think it’s one of my sisters,” he spluttered. “She sounds close by—we’ve got to help her—come on!”
    Arthur tore through synthetic leaves and branches as he scrambled down the tree. He dropped to the ground and dashed off toward the screams with Ruby trailing just behind him.
    They burst through a wall of artificial bracken into a narrow clearing—and froze in their tracks.
    Ten yards ahead, dangling by one arm from an elevated Sim-o-Tree branch, Arthur’s little sister Abigail screamed in terror. While this in itself would have been distressing enough, it was the sight of what waited
beneath
his sister that turned Arthur’s blood to ice.
    Rearing up from the ground below her, its snapping jaws inches from Abigail’s dangling feet, stood a gigantic bloodthirsty lizard, wearing a velvet smoking jacket and a monocle.

Midnight Snack
    A nyone who has previously crossed paths with an uncaged Komodo dragon is a lucky individual indeed—either lucky to be alive or lucky to be done with the dreadful business of being eaten by a Komodo dragon.
    According to Dr. Scarwood, Arthur’s Wilderness Survival instructor, the Komodo dragon is the World’s Largest Species of Lizard—as well as one of its most brutal killers.