Jurassic Carp

by Mo O'Hara

  ‘Pradeep!’ I yelled as the dino-fish suddenly charged him. Pradeep turned and shoved the rubber ring between himself and the fish. I could hear a hiss of air . . . the fish’s sharp teeth must have punctured it! Then all of a sudden Frankie was back. This time, his eyes were glowing a bright, hypnotic zombie green. He slammed right into the side of the giant fish, making it drop the ring and follow him to the other end of the pool.

  Pradeep clambered out. A second later Frankie leaped out of the deep end and on to the poolside. I ran to get him.

  ‘Are you OK?’ I shouted back to Sami and Pradeep as I scooped up the flailing Frankie and put him back in his water bottle.

  ‘Fun!’ Sami giggled. ‘Me play with big swishy fishy later?’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ I said, walking back to where they stood.

  ‘Did you see how big it is now?’ Pradeep gasped. The dino-fish was hiding again in the deep end of the pool. ‘It’s the size of a Labrador!’

  ‘Sami Kumar, did you get in that pool without me there?’ Pradeep’s mum’s voice echoed through the room.

  ‘Huhhh? What? No, I didn’t nod off!’ the lifeguard sat up in his chair and looked around.

  ‘Me went swimming with fishies,’ Sami cried happily.

  ‘Pradeep, Tom!’ Mrs Kumar’s shout continued. ‘Did you let her go in?’

  I quickly shoved the water bottle with Frankie in under my T-shirt.

  ‘We only looked away for a second . . .’ Pradeep started.

  ‘Look at the state of you, Pradeep. You’re drenched. And look at this swim ring!’ Mrs Kumar tutted as she walked towards us, looking at the slowly deflating green ring. ‘What will Sami use for swimming class?’

  ‘There won’t be a swimming class today.’ A Scottish voice rang out as Dr McDoom stepped out of the changing rooms and on to the poolside. ‘I’m very sorry but we’ve had to cancel the classes today to carry out . . . er . . . emergency maintenance on the pool. I’m afraid you all have to leave immediately.’

  She turned to the lifeguard. ‘You can go home now too!’ she shouted. The lifeguard practically skipped out of his chair and headed out.

  Mrs Kumar wrapped up Sami in a big fluffy towel, handed one to Pradeep and walked us towards the door. Dr McDoom very quickly, but politely, ushered us out of the pool area, waiting while we took all of our things, then exited the pool herself and locked the door behind us. She turned back to make sure we were leaving as she walked across the car park back to the school building.

  ‘I guess we know where they moved the fish!’ I whispered to Pradeep.

  ‘And now we know that the fish is definitely dangerous too,’ Pradeep said, holding up the rubber ring.

  ‘Now, can I trust you boys to take care of Sami while I go and pull the car around?’ Mrs Kumar glared at us. ‘And you are soaked, Pradeep!’ She huffed. ‘It’s lucky I always have spare clothes with me in the car for these situations.’

  ‘Thanks, Mum,’ Pradeep said. ‘You can trust us to watch Sami.’

  I just nodded. A lot. Then we plonked ourselves down on the steps to wait with Sami.

  ‘Miiiaowww!’

  Frankie sprang out of the top of the water bottle at the sound. He looked around, ready for a fight.

  ‘Fang!’ Pradeep and I muttered. We turned around to see a very angry-looking Fang wiggling out from a low vent in the pool wall.

  ‘Kitty not happy,’ Sami said, and reached out to stroke Fang. Instead of trying to swipe Sami’s hand or bite her, Fang rubbed up against Sami’s leg and actually let her tickle her.

  ‘That’s odd,’ I said. ‘Fang hates everyone but Mark.’

  Even Frankie stood down from his ‘on guard’ pose and started swimming around his bottle again.

  Sami got out her colouring pad and started to doodle. She drew a huge fish with big scary teeth and dopey-looking eyes.

  ‘Look, kitty,’ she said, showing Fang the drawing. ‘New big swishy fishy!’

  Fang extended her claws and with one clean slice she cut the picture in half.

  ‘Ah!’ I said, suddenly understanding. ‘I don’t think Fang likes the dino-fish either.’

  Suddenly we heard a key in the lock of the swimming-pool door behind us. Frankie’s eyes started glowing again so I quickly covered him up with Pradeep’s towel.

  ‘I thought the place was empty,’ I whispered. ‘Quick, let’s hide!’ We ran down the wooden steps and hid underneath them, peeking out through the gaps between the stairs.

  The door opened above us and Mark’s trainers appeared on the top step before vanishing again. Then there was the sound of something heavy being wheeled over our heads and we saw Mark pushing a large tank down the wheelchair ramp from the pool entrance.

  ‘Miaow!’ Fang raced out from our hiding place and tried to rub against Mark’s leg as he walked.

  ‘Hey, Fang, cut it out!’ Mark said, pushing her off to the side with his foot just as Dr McDoom pulled up in her van.

  ‘We’d better get our wee fishy out of here before he outgrows this tank too!’ Dr McDoom said as they wheeled the tank round to the back of the van. ‘He’s a truly wonderful specimen. Mesmerizing, you might say!’

  ‘You can say that again!’ said Mark. ‘Maybe we should feed it something? Like . . . oh, I dunno . . . maybe something green? And have you . . . er . . . checked the fish’s eyes?’

  We could just make out Dr McDoom staring deep into the dino-fish’s eyes, which remained very much not green and not swirly. She definitely didn’t start mumbling ‘swishy fishy’ or whatever the prehistoric version of that would be. ‘Uggy uggy’ maybe?

  ‘You’re right,’ she said to Mark. ‘Maybe the not-so-little dear is hungry. I’ll get him some dehydrated protein and vitamin food for the ride.’

  ‘Some what?’ Mark asked.

  ‘Fish flakes,’ she said. ‘Come on.’

  As the van pulled away and we came out from our hiding place, Fang slinked out from under a bush next to the wheelchair ramp.

  ‘We’ve got to follow them!’ Pradeep said.

  ‘We could never keep up on our bikes – besides we have to keep an eye on Sami,’ I replied. ‘If only we knew where they were heading!’

  Fang sauntered up to us and dropped a piece of paper at our feet.

  Pradeep picked it up. ‘Reservoir Water Sports Centre,’ he read. It had a picture of a bunch of kids riding on a banana boat on the front.

  ‘That’s where they’re going!’ I said. ‘What’s a reservoir anyway?’

  ‘It’s a manmade body of water. Like a lake,’ Pradeep answered.

  ‘You know, it might make sense to take the fish there. It’s big but it’s contained, so the fish can’t get out into the rivers or the sea. But why should we trust Fang? It might be a trap.’

  Mark’s evil kitten glared at us, then slinked over to Sami, who was still holding her torn drawing of the dino-fish. Fang grabbed the picture with her teeth, threw it into the air and kitten-claw-shredded it into confetti.

  ‘Paper snow!’ giggled Sami.

  ‘Fang REALLY hates that fish, doesn’t she?’ Pradeep said.

  I nodded. ‘Just like you, right, Frankie?’ I added, removing Frankie’s water bottle from under Pradeep’s towel.

  Frankie popped his head out and shot a jet of water at Fang. She hissed back at him and tried to lunge for the bottle but I pulled it away.

  ‘Yikes!’ I cried. ‘Looks like she still hates Frankie too. Let’s not get too cosy with the evil kitten just yet.’

  Just then we heard the Booooobeeeeep of Pradeep’s mum’s car horn. She has the only car I know that has a horn that sounds like it’s shouting, ‘Cooooeeeee!’

  She pulled into the driveway and handed Pradeep a bag of clothes. He climbed into the back of the car to put them on while she got Sami’s things together.

  ‘Muuuummmm!’ I could hear Pradeep whine from the back seat. ‘These are the clothes that Grandma sent over last year! I thought you gave them away?’

 
‘You mean you thought you got rid of them?’ Pradeep’s mum said. ‘I found the bag you stuffed under your bed, young man.’

  ‘Urgh,’ Pradeep groaned.

  When he came out he was dressed in a matching T-shirt and shorts decorated with kissing pandas and glittery cupcakes. If a more embarrassing set of clothes existed they would have to be quarantined.

  Even Frankie hung his head in shame.

  Pradeep shot me a look that simply said, ‘Don’t.’

  While Pradeep’s mum was putting Sami into the car I said, ‘Um, Mrs Kumar. Sami looks really disappointed that she didn’t get to swim.’

  I looked over at Sami, who was smiling and not looking disappointed at all. I coughed noisily and added, ‘Yep, she looks really SAD about it.’

  Sami finally understood what I meant and put on her patented ‘sad toddler with wobbly bottom lip’ face. It’s a classic!

  ‘Oh dear,’ Mrs Kumar said when she looked at Sami.

  ‘Maybe you could go here?’ I said, handing her the flyer that Fang had given us. ‘It’s supposed to be really fun. We could ride our bikes over and meet you there. Right, Pradeep?’

  Pradeep looked up from the kissing pandas on his shirt and nodded. ‘Uh huh.’

  ‘Well, I’ve got to run some errands first, but I suppose we could come later on,’ said Mrs Kumar. ‘You both be careful. Stick to the cycle paths. And no swimming until I get there!’ She wagged her finger at us and we both nodded.

  ‘Right, let’s go!’ I cried as the car drove off. ‘We’ve got a doctor to see about a dino-fish.’

  ‘I can’t go out in public in this!’ Pradeep said as we crossed the path to the bike shed.

  ‘You have to,’ I replied. ‘It’s for the good of science.’ It was low blow but I knew it was the only thing that Pradeep couldn’t resist.

  ‘OK,’ he mumbled and lifted his glittery-cupcake shorts leg over his bike. ‘For science.’

  The reservoir isn’t far from our school but it is pretty isolated. You have to drive down a loooooong driveway to get to it. Then, when you’re about to turn back because you think you’ve got lost, you finally see a sign advertising the water sports centre.

  By the time we’d arrived, my back was sore from Frankie thrashing about in his water bottle in my backpack, trying to get out. He was really worked up. I think I got the better deal though, because Pradeep had to take Fang on his bike, which meant he had needle-sharp kitten claws digging into his legs every time they went around a tight corner or over a bump.

  ‘Ooooh, my thighs,’ Pradeep moaned as he carefully got off his bike at the water sports centre. Fang leaped down and immediately ran off towards Dr McDoom’s van.

  We locked up our bikes and I opened the lid of Frankie’s water bottle to let him peek out. He poked his head out as far as it would go and strained to see if he could spot any sign of Mark, Dr McDoom or the dino-fish. Then he motioned with his fin and pointed.

  Pradeep and and I followed his fin. We could just make out someone in a white scientist coat standing in front of the van by the water’s edge in a small roped-off area of the reservoir. There were large wind buffers, like fences, blocking our view, so we couldn’t see what was in the water.

  ‘Mark!’ Pradeep and I said at the same time.

  The reservoir itself was massive. It was the size of at least two football pitches, and kind of bean-shaped. We were at one end of the bump and Mark was in a corner of the opposite end. The motorboats and banana boats were all moored up on the far side of the lake. There were some other people at our end parking their cars and vans, but they didn’t look like they were here for water sports. On the other side of the car park Dr McDoom was speaking to some people with microphones and cameras. There were other people in white coats there as well.

  ‘In good time, people.’ She held up her hands. ‘We have some final arrangements to make and then we shall make the announcement you’ve been waiting to hear.’

  ‘She’s going to show them the dino-fish!’ I said. ‘That must be her plan.’

  ‘And if it is a giant zombie fish, Mark will be able to make it zombify all the reporters to do whatever he wants,’ Pradeep said. ‘We still don’t know what the fish is capable of!’

  Dr McDoom didn’t notice us as we sneaked through the throng of reporters and headed towards Mark at the far end of the lake. When we got close enough we hid behind the van so we could see Mark without being seen. Fang had followed us but I couldn’t see any sign of her now. That worried me. You should always know where an evil kitten is, just in case.

  ‘I know you’ve got some zombie fish in you!’ Mark was saying – pointing into the roped-off section of the reservoir. ‘There are lots of people coming to see you . . . and you are going to hypnotize them and put them under my control. Then I’ll have a team of scientists that I can turn evil, and reporters to tell the world all about the cool evil stuff that we’re gonna do. This is going to rock. And why are you going to do this for me, my wittle-evil dino-fish? Cos I’m the person with the yummy green treats, aren’t I?’

  He held up a mouldy green piece of bread high above his head and the fish jumped clear out of the water, and snapped it out of Mark’s hand.

  Pradeep and I gasped. The dino-fish was now the size of a small whale!

  Frankie popped his head out of the water bottle. His eyes were a blazing zombie green but he was also drooling. I don’t think he knew if he was angry or hungry or both.

  ‘Hey, mind the nails, fish!’ Mark huffed.

  ‘That fish is the size of a car!’ I whispered to Pradeep. ‘How did it grow so fast?’

  ‘Genetic programming? Accelerated hormone boosting? Intensive thermo-reactive expansion therapy?’ Pradeep thought out loud. ‘Or maybe it’s just big boned?’

  ‘Whatever the reason,’ I replied, ‘we’ve got to stop Mark!’

  Pradeep pointed. ‘Oh no – Frankie! He must be trying to stop Mark on his own!’

  I peered around the edge of the van and saw Frankie jumping from puddle to puddle across the paving towards the water’s edge.

  Just as Mark tossed the last piece of mouldy green bread into the air over the water, Frankie leaped out over the reservoir and gulped it down in one before splashing into the water.

  ‘Or he just wants food!’ I mumbled.

  ‘Hey! Moron fish!’ Mark shouted. ‘Now you’re gonna get it.’

  Frankie surfaced from the water, his eyes a full-on zombie green.

  ‘Dino-fish! Sick ’em!’ Mark shouted.

  Pradeep and I ran out from behind the van.

  ‘Swim, Frankie! Swim!’ I shouted – as the huge dino-fish surfaced behind him.

  ‘Little morons!’ Mark smirked. ‘Good. You get to be here to see my evil plan go global. Dr McDoom and I are going to be invited to take this dino-fish all over the world, and wherever we go we can get the fish to zombify people. And if people don’t like it . . . well, the dino-fish has a nasty bite.’

  You won’t get away with this!’ Pradeep shouted.

  ‘Yeah, I think we will,’ Mark said. ‘Me and Dr McDoom will be the best evil team ever.’

  ‘Hang on,’ I interrupted. ‘You’ve got an Evil Scientist crush on Dr McDoom?!’

  ‘Do not!’ Mark shouted.

  ‘Do so,’ I said.

  ‘DO NOT!’ Mark stomped.

  ‘Do soooooo,’ I teased.

  We were interrupted by frantic splashing from the water, where Frankie and the dino-fish were circling each other.

  ‘Oh, sorry, Frankie,’ I said. ‘Come on, jump out of there!’ But every time Frankie went to move, the dino-fish was there first.

  ‘Frankie!’ Pradeep shouted. ‘Try to swim out to the main bit of the reservoir! You’ll have a better chance of losing him in a bigger space!’

  ‘He can’t.’ Mark smiled. ‘There’s a net stretched under that rope that seals off this whole corner of the lake. It’s a protected holding pen. Nothing can get in or out.’

  ‘Unless so
meone or something used a super-sharp cutting device to slice through the rope holding up the net and let the fish out,’ Pradeep said.

  ‘Yeah, I guess . . .’ Mark sounded confused. ‘But who’s gonna do that?’

  ‘Um . . . Fang . . . I think,’ I mumbled, pointing to the kitten perched at the side of the lake, her razor sharp claws poised to cut the rope.

  ‘Noooooo!’ Mark shouted as his kitten swiped her razor-sharp claws downward. ‘You can’t let the dino-fish free! It’ll ruin all our evil plans!’

  But he was too late. The rope split in two, dropping the net to the lake floor.

  Both Frankie and the dino-fish stopped thrashing about in the water and looked out at the rest of the lake. Then Frankie’s eyes dimmed from their luminous green to their normal goldfish colour. The huge dino-fish looked right into Frankie’s eyes . . . and for a moment it looked like the two of them were communicating in looks. But the moment didn’t last long. Fang leaped from the lakeside directly on to the dino-fish’s back. She dug her teeth into its dorsal fin and it reared up in pain, before disappearing under the water with Fang still desperately hanging on to its back.

  The water looked eerily still.

  ‘Fang!’ Mark yelped, suddenly panicked. ‘Where is she?’

  It seemed like ages before the dino-fish surfaced again in the main part of the reservoir. It was hidden by the windshields from the growing group of people at the far end of the lake.

  ‘She’s there!’ Pradeep shouted, and pointed to the wet kitten still clinging to the back of the giant fish. The dino-fish reared up again and Fang fell helplessly into the water.

  ‘I’m coming for you, Fang!’ Mark yelled as he pulled off his trainers and dropped his Evil Scientist white coat to the ground. He dived into the water and headed straight for his flailing kitten.