The Misfits Club

by Kieran Crowley

  Cars whizzed by, providing brief, cooling gusts of air and lungfuls of exhaust fumes as he finally caught up with Amelia and Hannah.

  ‘I’ve been weighed down by loads of safety stuff and Amelia’s bike is from the 1700s or something. You shouldn’t be that far behind us,’ Hannah said.

  ‘I know,’ Chris said. ‘It’s really embarrassing. That red on my face is shame mixed with over-exertion, which possibly indicates I need some medical attention. Anyone else seeing stars?’

  ‘Miss Marple never had to put up with this,’ Hannah muttered to herself.

  Chris wiped the sweat from his brow, then took the tablet from his backpack. Amelia and Hannah looked over his shoulder as they followed the on-screen progress of the little green dot that represented Chris’s mobile phone. It had moved on from the gridlines of the town to the surrounding countryside.

  ‘That’s at least two more kilometres of cycling,’ Chris groaned.

  ‘Shouldn’t you be more worried about your brother?’ Amelia asked.

  ‘What? Oh yeah. Wow, that was selfish of me. No, Sam and Brian are fine. As long as the little green dot is moving then they won’t have been discovered. They’re only in trouble when it stops moving.’

  The on-screen dot stopped moving just as Chris finished the sentence.

  ‘Well, that’s just bad timing,’ he said dolefully.

  He stared at the tablet for a moment before shaking the screen, as if that would make it move. It was an instinctive reaction and, he knew, a futile one.

  ‘Does that mean—’

  ‘Yep,’ Chris said.

  He was twenty metres ahead, racing down the hill before either of the girls had climbed back on their bikes.

  Even though the car had come to a stop, and they knew that they had to prepare themselves for the moment the boot was opened, Brian and Sam found it difficult to get into position. Their muscles were trembling and weren’t totally obeying the orders their brains were sending. They moved around shakily in the cramped conditions.

  Brian heard the car doors slam shut, followed by the sound of footsteps. The men were heading towards the back of the car. Suddenly, Sam’s face loomed out of the darkness. Brian suppressed a yelp. His friend had found Chris’s mobile phone. He must have pressed a button rather than engaged the flashlight setting as the light that illuminated his features was weak.

  ‘Ready?’ Sam whispered, one hand balled up into a twitching fist.

  Brian nodded yes, which was a lie. He didn’t feel ready at all. But they had to act. The men were bigger and stronger, but they weren’t expecting to find them in there either, so Brian and Sam had the element of surprise on their side. The moment they opened the boot, they’d launch themselves forward, shouting like Celtic warriors, and hope to create enough confusion to escape with a head start.

  But the boot didn’t open and the footsteps faded. The men had gone somewhere else. As soon as he thought the coast was clear Sam reached forward, about to open the boot.

  ‘Wait,’ Brian said, grabbing his friend’s arm. ‘What if we’re somewhere that’s out in the open? They might see us the second we get out of the car.’

  ‘You’re right. We should just stay in here until they discover us,’ Sam said sarcastically.

  ‘Fair point.’

  It was too risky to wait for something to happen. They had to take action. Brian released his friend’s arm, but when Sam tried to open the boot, he had no luck.

  ‘It’s stuck,’ he said.

  Together they pushed at the boot lid, even resorting to lying on their backs, their knees pressed into their chest and the soles of their feet against the lid, but it wouldn’t budge.

  ‘What now?’ Sam gasped. He was puffed out from the effort.

  ‘I’ve got an idea,’ Brian said.

  Chris was lagging behind the girls again, but not as far behind as he had been earlier. They were freewheeling along narrow, potholed country roads, allowing him to catch up a little. It was a pleasant summer’s evening and if it hadn’t been for two of their friends being accidentally kidnapped, the girls would have been enjoying their cycle in the countryside.

  ‘Left turn,’ Chris called out from behind.

  The girls just about heard him in time to make it. The road they turned on to was hemmed in on either side by overgrown hedges that would have scratched at their faces if they hadn’t ducked beneath them.

  Amelia and Hannah slowed until he’d caught up with them.

  ‘Thanks. I’ve no idea why some people exercise for pleasure. This is absolute torture,’ he said. ‘You ever been here before?’

  ‘Not that I remember,’ Hannah said.

  He looked along the long, narrow road ahead. It seemed to disappear right into the heart of the countryside.

  ‘What do you think is down there?’ he asked.

  ‘Doesn’t matter,’ Amelia said. ‘We have to help the boys. They’re not smart enough to get out of trouble by themselves.’

  Hannah started to disagree, but then gave up. She was only doing it out of a sense of loyalty. Those two were always doing something stupid. Usually, though, the stupid thing was fairly minor. This looked major.

  Brian’s plan was actually working. He could hardly believe it himself. Since they couldn’t open the boot, they’d looked for an alternative route out of their temporary prison. He’d guessed correctly that the back seats would fold down and after much manoeuvring, involving a pulled muscle, trapped fingers and some choice swear words, they’d managed to force their way into the back of the car. They pushed the seats back into place before peeping through the tinted windows.

  The car was parked in a farmyard, although it didn’t look as if any farming had taken place there in the last few years. There was an old milking parlour to one side, its grey galvanized roof speckled with yellow and brown patches of rust. An empty haybarn was on the opposite side. Discarded farm equipment littered the yard and the old two-storey house looked tired and baggy and in need of renovation.

  ‘What are they doing in there?’ Brian said.

  ‘Let’s figure that out later. Time for us to move,’ Sam said. He changed his mind when he saw the men coming out of the house. The heavier one had a grimace on his face and blood was dripping from his hand. ‘OK, back in the boot, back in the boot.’

  They’d barely made it back in before the car doors opened and Lionel and Burt climbed in again.

  Luckily for the other Misfits, they knew the Impreza was coming down the road towards them long before they saw or even heard it. Chris had been checking the tracking app again when he’d seen the little green dot begin moving in their direction.

  ‘Hide! They’re coming back,’ he said.

  Amelia recognized the distinctive throaty roar of the engine in the distance moments later. The trio managed to bundle themselves, bikes and all, into the ditch just before the car raced past. If either of the men had seen them, they gave no sign, the car barely slowing down before it turned left sharply and slalomed out of sight.

  Hannah righted her bike, her hands covered in thorn scratches. ‘Did we just cycle all the way here, only for them to drive off somewhere else immediately?’

  ‘Looks like it,’ Amelia said.

  ‘We have to follow them. If Sam and Brian are still in that car, the—’ Chris began.

  ‘He’s right,’ Amelia said.

  With heavy hearts, they turned their bikes round. Chris checked the movement of his phone on the tablet again. The green dot on the screen was speeding back towards Newpark. They’d have to cycle back the way they’d come.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  After a while, Brian and Sam got used to bouncing off each other in the boot of the car and were growing bored. If it wasn’t for their hunger and desperate need to pee, they’d have almost been comfortable.

  They’d come to a stop and the men had got out of the car again and Brian and Sam hadn’t heard them for almost five minutes. They decided to wait for just long enough to mak
e sure the men were actually gone, but not so long that they’d return and catch them escaping from the car. It was difficult to know exactly how to calculate that, so they didn’t. Instead, they relied on Sam’s not-very-reliable gut instinct.

  ‘Let’s get out of here,’ Sam said after another minute, echoing exactly what Brian had been thinking.

  Using their, by now familiar, escape route they climbed into the back seat of the car and had a quick look around. They were in a vast housing estate and it looked familiar.

  ‘Is this—’

  ‘Yes,’ Brian said.

  They both knew where they were – Castle Park – the largest estate in Newpark. Hundreds of semi-detached houses were spread on either side of a network of speed-bumped roads and green areas. Neither of them had any idea what Lionel and Burt were doing here, but Brian noticed that the car was parked on a footpath rather than in a driveway. Whether that meant anything or not, he wasn’t sure.

  They opened the back door, keeping an eye out for the men. The curtains were drawn in the nearest house. They couldn’t see any sign of life inside, but there was plenty of life on the street. Nobody gave Brian and Sam a second look as they emerged from the car.

  Brian’s legs were weak and tingled with pins and needles. It was good to be free, but there was no time to hang around and celebrate. They had to get out of there as quickly as they could.

  He was almost at the end of the road when he looked back and saw that Sam was leaning into the passenger side of the car, his head hidden by the open door. What was he doing?

  His friend emerged moments later with Chris’s mobile phone in his hand. Brian gestured at him frantically until Sam looked up. He grinned and waved back before ducking his head back in the car again.

  ‘Come on, Sam. What’s taking you so long?’ Brian muttered to himself.

  He was still feeling sick from being trapped in the boot for so long and now he was getting edgy too. He knew they’d been lucky to escape without being captured. It’d be foolish to get caught n—

  The front door of the house opened and there was one of the men, the heavier of the two. It was OK – he hadn’t seen Sam. He was just lighting up a cigarette. If Brian could distract him in some way, then Sam might get away. No, too late. He’d spotted him. Nice one, Sam.

  ‘I know you,’ Burt said. ‘How do I know you?’ His brow furrowed while it waited for his brain to catch up. ‘Hey. You’re one of the nursing-home kids.’ He roared for his brother. ‘Get out here. Now.’

  It took Sam a moment to react. It was a moment he didn’t have to spare.

  Lionel was quicker than Burt. He was out of the door and past him in a heartbeat.

  ‘Run,’ Brian shouted.

  His friend didn’t need to be told twice. He rushed forward, his feet slapping the footpath at speed, heading in Brian’s direction. Brian turned and took off. Sam was alongside him within seconds. They reached the end of the road. Left or right?

  Lionel was in hot pursuit, Burt lumbering after him.

  Sam ducked left, Brian following his lead. They both glanced over their shoulders to see if Lionel was gaining on them. They shouldn’t have looked.

  For a moment, Brian thought he’d run into a concrete wall. Then he realized it was a concrete wall in human form.

  ‘Well, well, well, isn’t this my lucky day,’ Declan ‘Smasher’ Grabbe said as Brian and Sam bounced off him and crumpled to the ground, sore and winded.

  When Lionel and Burt turned the corner, it was to find a mountain of a boy with a secure grip on the two youngsters they’d been pursuing.

  Burt grinned nastily, revealing that he still had almost two thirds of his own teeth.

  ‘Thanks for the help, pal,’ Lionel said. ‘We’ll take it from here.’

  ‘Take what from here?’ Smasher said.

  ‘We want a word with those two kids.’

  ‘You can have a word with them when I’ve finished, though they won’t be in a talking mood then,’ Smasher said.

  ‘Listen to me, mate,’ Lionel began, but Burt had already lunged forward.

  Smasher released his grip on Sam and Brian, and took out Burt with a right hook. Burt fell back against his brother, who, rather than catching him, shoved him aside.

  ‘That was mistake number one,’ Lionel said. ‘You don’t get to make two of them.’

  ‘I think we should run,’ Sam whispered.

  ‘I think you’re right,’ Brian agreed.

  They took off and were already twenty metres away when Lionel was felled by another Smasher punch. They were safe for the moment. Smasher was big and strong, but he wasn’t fast. There was no way he was catching them. He didn’t even try.

  ‘What were you doing?’ Brian asked a few minutes later when they were clear of danger.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  The back of Sam’s T-shirt was covered in clumps of what looked like black and white fur. Brian picked some off and showed it to him.

  ‘This stuff is all over your shirt.’

  Sam examined it. ‘Oh, I know. Must be from that blanket that was in the boot. Those guys—’

  ‘Manuel and Bart, it sounded like.’

  They had misheard the men’s names due to the poor acoustics in the car.

  ‘Yeah, they must have a dog or something. Looks like the colour of one of those Labradors or Newfoundlands or something. Chris’d know. Anyway, that’s hardly important now, is it?’

  He must have cared a little bit, though, because he whipped off his T-shirt, turned it inside out and put it back on again.

  ‘That wasn’t the best idea. It’s scratchy now,’ he said.

  ‘We should ring the others,’ Brian said.

  ‘Knowing them, they’re probably sitting around the nursing home having cups of tea and biscuits while we’re out doing all the running around,’ Sam said.

  Hannah was thrilled when they rang. She kept saying, ‘You’re OK, you’re OK,’ in a relieved voice, which unnerved the boys a little as she wasn’t normally one for being emotional. Insults they could deal with, but a caring nature – well, that was something else entirely. It was awkward. They arranged to meet up back at the nursing home where Brian and Sam could retrieve their bikes.

  Chris and the two girls wanted to hear about everything the boys had got up to and they peppered them with questions as they cycled home. They were extremely interested in where the men had been driving to. They’d also be checking the internet for any characters called Manuel and Bart in the next few hours.

  ‘They’re distinctive names. We should easily find something on them,’ Chris said.

  ‘We’ve stumbled on to something serious,’ Hannah said. ‘Did you see how quickly Manuel and Bart turned up at the nursing home once Rodney went into the hallway? You don’t have two guys chasing after you unless they think you’re going to stop them from doing something.’

  ‘We know Rodney was involved and we have some of the places they visited tracked on the tablet, but where do we go from here?’ Amelia asked.

  ‘We go back to my place and get something to eat,’ Hannah said. ‘Anyone hungry?’

  ‘I’m ravenous,’ Brian said.

  ‘Me too,’ Sam said. ‘And I really, really need to find a bathroom.’

  ‘Mum’ll have my tea ready by now. It must be nearly half past five. I’d better hurry if I don’t want to be late,’ Hannah said.

  She almost fainted when she looked at her phone. She’d completely lost track of the time. It was 6.03 p.m. and there were three missed calls from her mother and two from her father.

  ‘I’m dead,’ Hannah said. ‘So, so, so, so dead. Name something dead, double how dead it is and that’s me. I’ve got to go. Don’t send any texts or app messages about what we’ve been up to just in case they take my phone away as punishment. If I can’t get to my phone, keep an eye out for emails, letters and messages in bottles. I’ll get in touch somehow.’

  She took off immediately and within a minute she was just
a luminous yellow dot in the distance, her jacket and helmet picked out by the fading sun.

  ‘What do we do now?’ Amelia said.

  ‘We go home. I’ll examine all the data on the tablet,’ Chris said. ‘Sam will write out a full and detailed report of everything he can remember—’

  ‘Great, who doesn’t love writing essays during the summer holidays,’ Sam said.

  ‘– and we’ll meet up early tomorrow morning and decide on our next move.’

  ‘An early morning as well? Right after Mum and Dad’s leaving party? This just gets better and better.’

  ❀ Amelia’s Journal ❀

  I actually love it here. I never though I’d say that. I can hardly believe I wrote it. Every day is fun now. I always thought Newpark was really boring, but I guess I was just hanging out with the wrong people.

  I spoke to my dad on the phone and we got on a bit better. Things are looking up. He’s even started hinting about coming home, but the thing is I don’t really want to go home. Not now when things are just getting interesting. I’m getting on great with Gran. I still hate her food (if it wasn’t for Hannah’s mum, I think I’d have probably starved to death by now) and sometimes Gran can be hard to deal with because she thinks she’s right about everything. The worst thing is that she usually IS right about stuff. That’s very annoying. She still thinks I’m a bit uptight and scared to take chances. She’s always saying things like, ‘You’ve got to loosen up, Amelia,’ or, ‘Do the things you fear and the death of fear is certain,’ which I think means something like do scary things and you won’t find them as scary any more. Well, I have been doing scary things and I intend to do plenty more. It’s so weird. I think if my friends saw me now they wouldn’t recognize me. I don’t look very different and maybe from the outside I mightn’t seem that different, but I feel different. I feel like I can do anything. I don’t know why that is.

  The only thing that’s really bothering me is the secret I’ve been keeping about why I’m here. I’ve come close to telling Hannah a couple of times, but I’ve lost my nerve (which sounds like a joke after writing about how much better I am at doing scary things). What if I tell her and she hates me? What if they all hate me and never want to talk to me again? Gran says that secrets are bad for the soul. I think she might be right. Why is she always right?