‘But where’s Tom?’ said Amelia.
‘He’s here,’ said Charlie, looking around the door into the gateway room. Tom lay flat on his back, his eye wide open, unmoving.
Charlie squatted down and patted Tom’s cheek. When nothing happened, he put his ear to Tom’s chest to check his heart was still beating, and a finger under Tom’s nose to feel for his breath.
‘Unconscious,’ he said. ‘Totally out of it, but otherwise fine, I reckon.’ Without warning, he peeked under Tom’s eye-patch.
‘Charlie!’
‘What? As if you’ve never been curious.’
‘Not that curious.’
Amelia brought over an old crocheted blanket from the back of the sofa and Charlie tried to roll Tom over onto his side. Tom, though, was completely rigid.
‘It’s almost like …’ Charlie said, grunting with the effort, and then giving up suddenly. Tom rocked on the floor as though he were a statue, not an actual person. ‘… like he’s been petrified.’
Amelia winced at the thought, and spread the blanket over him – a useless gesture if he had been turned to stone, but she had to do something. They returned to the front room, searching for the box James had put all of Foxy’s confiscated property into. Amelia was utterly unsurprised to see it lying empty on the floor behind Tom’s desk. Whatever Foxy and his giant friends had come to do, they were now fully equipped.
Amelia picked up Tom’s phone and saw that the spiralling cord that connected the old-fashioned handset to the dialing part had been cut.
‘Look.’ She showed Charlie the severed wires. ‘We’ve got to tell Mum and Dad.’
With one last look back at Tom, Amelia and Charlie raced out of the cottage and back through the trees. They were right at the foot of the headland, looking up the steep slope to the hotel, and the moon came out from behind a haze of cloud, casting a clear light over everything. Charlie was about to run out onto the open grass, but Amelia grabbed his arm – she’d spotted the three aliens bursting out of the bush beyond the hedge maze.
There was a blast of light from the scanner in Foxy’s hands, and then a piercing scream from a completely different direction.
‘Oh, no,’ said Charlie.
‘Sophie T!’ Amelia was horrified to see her friend standing on the brow of the hill – just where the rest of them had stood earlier to watch the fireworks. ‘What’s she doing there?’
‘Not being left out.’
‘What about her being afraid of the dark?’
‘Apparently she would literally rather die than be left behind.’
‘Don’t say that!’ Amelia moved out of the grove. ‘We’ve got to help her.’
This time it was Charlie who held Amelia back. ‘Yeah, but not by being caught.’
Amelia watched as all three aliens began running toward Sophie T. Her own heart was racing – she couldn’t imagine how Sophie T’s must be. ‘OK, we don’t get caught,’ she agreed. ‘But then what?’
The two blue giants were barreling up the slope like charging elephants, running shoulder to shoulder, and then suddenly they split apart: one circling out to the right, the other to the left, so that as they drew closer to Sophie T, they were also cutting off her escape back to the hotel.
‘They’re rounding her up like sheep dogs,’ hissed Charlie. ‘Enormous rhino sheep dogs.’
‘Charlie, what are we going to do?’
‘And here comes Foxy …’
Foxy was nowhere near as quick as the giants, but he was direct. Instead of helping the giants outflank Sophie T, he ran straight at her, yipping and growling the whole time.
‘Tom’s out cold, Leaf Man’s in the Nowhere,’ Amelia thought out loud. ‘Mum and Dad are in the hotel. So’s Lady Naomi probably, but we can’t get there without going past them –’
As Foxy drew closer to Sophie T, she began to shrink back from him.
Charlie groaned. ‘Look behind you, Sophie, you dope. Haven’t you ever watched a horror movie?’
By stumbling away from Foxy, Sophie T was walking straight into the waiting hands of Spike and Beard.
Foxy yipped and waved a hand (Amelia thought he was telling off the giants, warning them to leave Sophie T alone), but it only made Sophie T back away faster. Finally realising that his natural form and voice were making things worse, Foxy switched on his holo-emitter.
The shabby corduroy man appeared and began speaking to Sophie T in English. His high voice carried clearly in the still night air, and Amelia could hear that it was shaking. Foxy must be freaking out, too. ‘It’s OK,’ he quavered. ‘Nothing’s going to happen. You’re OK.’
Beard growled. ‘In English,’ snapped Foxy. ‘The poor child is frightened enough as it is.’
Beard snorted, then rasped, ‘You think we care if it’s frightened? Get rid of it. We’ve got less than an hour before our wormhole leaves, and so far you’ve achieved nothing.’
At the sound of a new voice behind her, Sophie T spun on the spot and reeled back as she took in the enormous creature towering over her. She gave a cry – not so much a scream as a choking in-breath of dismay – and then Spike pointed at her, a light flashed, and … nothing. Sophie T didn’t move. She didn’t so much as squeak, or even drop the hand that was lifted partway to her mouth. It was as thought she’d been frozen, or …
‘Petrified,’ whispered Charlie.
‘At least we’ve caught something,’ said Spike. ‘It’s only a tiny little wriggler, but better than nothing.’
‘We’re not taking a human child!’ Foxy yipped. ‘This has nothing to do with the contract I signed.’
‘Contract?’ sneered Beard. ‘Do you see any contract lawyers around? We’re here to turn a profit, and if you’ve got any brains in that tiny head of yours, you’ll do what we tell you. And quickly.’
Foxy, to his credit, did not back down. Hands on hips, he said, ‘I’m a scientist, not some hired thug. This is a little girl – native to this planet. I agreed to help return a feral animal to its home planet, not kidnap a person from hers. Profit has nothing to do with my motives.’
Beard began to tremble and heave, his breathing becoming jerky, noisy and more horrible than anything Amelia had heard so far. She realised he was laughing. ‘Pick it up,’ he said to Spike. ‘We’ll deal with our little scientist later, once the mission is completed.’
Spike picked up Sophie T, tucked her under his arm like an umbrella, and laughed in Foxy’s face.
‘How much less frightened is she, now that she’s heard all that in English?’ he guffawed, and then turned and followed Beard into the bush.
Foxy stood uselessly for a heartbeat or two in the moonlight, and then scurried after them.
Amelia, still crouched and hiding, covered her face in her hands. ‘Oh no. Oh, we’re dead. Sophie T’s dead!’
‘Not yet,’ said Charlie. ‘It doesn’t sound like they’re going to eat her, so that’s good.’
‘Yeah, but –’ Amelia took a deep breath, trying to get some sense into herself. ‘But what do we do? We can’t stop them. No-one in Forgotten
Bay would be strong enough to get in their way.’
‘Tom has that shotgun.’
‘And Tom’s unconscious – same as Sophie T, I’m guessing – and his place is in the opposite direction to those guys.’
‘Who are totally getting away while we talk about it,’ Charlie pointed out, helpful as ever.
‘What about Mum and Dad? And James? Have they seriously just slept through all of that?’
‘Look,’ said Charlie. ‘Hotel: that way.’ He pointed up the hill to their right. ‘Kidnapping space-giants and Sophie T: that way.’ He pointed down to the bush ahead of them, and to the left. ‘And they’re moving fast. Choose.’
‘I could –’
‘No,’ he cut her off. ‘We don’t split up. I don’t mind doing something insanely dangerous, even if it is only Sophie T we’re trying to save, but I won’t do it alone.’
‘But I was –’
‘And neither will you.’
Amelia groaned in frustration. He was right, and she knew it, so their only options were raising the alarm (by which time, who would know where they had taken Sophie T?) or …
‘There’s no choice.’ Amelia got to her feet. ‘We have to go after them, and –’
‘Yeah?’
‘Hope for an opportunity,’ she finished lamely. ‘I think the best we can do is try to catch up.’
‘Good enough,’ said Charlie. ‘Let’s go.’
Even without a plan, it was good to be moving. Just the physical work of running uphill, thinking where the aliens could be headed, and listening for clues, cleared Amelia’s mind. She was too busy to feel the full force of her fear, and to worry about what might happen next. All she had to do was find the trail.
They reached the edge of the lawn beyond the hedge maze, and paused in front of the wall of dense bush.
‘Which way?’ said Charlie.
Amelia scanned left and right, wondering if the aliens had actually been headed anywhere, or if they were just randomly ploughing through the trees.
‘Wouldn’t you think guys that big would leave a more obvious path?’ said Charlie.
‘Maybe if we could see as well as Lady Naomi –’ Something caught Amelia’s eye: the faintest suggestion of a yellow glow amongst the undergrowth, and then it was gone. ‘That way, come on!’
The bush was vicious. Serrated leaves and thorny twigs grabbed at them with every step, and their pyjamas were not designed to cope with any of it. ‘I’m sleeping in jeans from now on,’ puffed Charlie.
‘Look, look!’
Ahead, a good-sized branch of a banksia tree was snapped in half and dangling. It was so high up that Amelia could only have touched the break with the tips of her fingers at a full stretch.
‘They’re making a path through – Yeah, see? There.’ She pointed in the darkness. ‘The ferns have all been squashed flat.’
They picked up speed, then slowed down again almost immediately. They wanted to follow the aliens, not catch up to them. Through a gully, then a grove of straggly gums (more branches snapped), and up a rocky rise, and then so deep into the bush they were far past the farthest they’d ever been. And that had been with Lady Naomi and in full daylight. And then they saw the aliens.
But where was Sophie T?
Several small trees had been knocked down and piled to one side, making a rough clearing. The giants had taken off their backpacks and Spike was rummaging through his.
Amelia and Charlie hunched down behind a boulder and watched. Foxy was still engrossed in his scanner. Beard was noisily chewing on something, and scratching his belly contentedly. Charlie nudged Amelia: there was Sophie T, still in that exact position they’d last seen her, with a hand partially raised. Only she wasn’t standing now, she’d been laid down on the ground, and was almost hidden in the long grass. Safe – for now.
Spike stood up straight, yawned, and began humming as he fussed about the baggage, hardly paying any attention to Sophie T.
They don’t seem interested in her at all, Amelia thought. Then what? What could get these giants to team up with Foxy?
Spike laughed back and then said again to Foxy, ‘So where’s the beast? You said you had a signal.’
‘I have,’ Foxy yipped. ‘Or I did. These animals are incredibly hard to track.’
‘No more excuses!’ snapped Beard. ‘If we miss the wormhole, we miss the sale, and if that happens, I think you’ll find it incredibly hard to make it up to us.’
‘Sale?’ said Foxy. ‘What sale?’
Beard snorted. ‘You don’t think we came all the way out to Earth without having a buyer lined up already, did you?’
‘But I never agreed to help you sell a wild animal – I was helping you save it!’
‘Oh, you’re helping, all right,’ said Spike. ‘Helping save our business. Helping our reputations –’
‘Helping us make a good impression on the Guild,’ Beard added.
Charlie nudged Amelia again, and she saw what he’d noticed: Sophie T’s fingers were beginning to twitch. Whatever Spike had done to petrify her, it was starting to wear off. But how long before Sophie T could move enough to get away? The moon was so bright, Charlie and Amelia had no chance of sneaking over and carrying her off without being caught too.
Amelia turned to look back the way they’d come. How long would it take us to go get Mum and Dad? And then she realised something terrible. I don’t remember the way home – I think we’re lost.
They were as trapped as Sophie T, with no way to get help. Even if they somehow stole Sophie T back from the aliens, what could they do next? There was nowhere safe for them to go, and nowhere to hide as long as Foxy had that scanner. Unless Charlie knew how to get back to the hotel …
She turned to ask Charlie, but found to her horror that he was gone. A moment later, she spotted his pale face on the other side of the clearing, peeking out from behind the pile of ripped up trees. Her whole body was flooded with relief, but then she froze: If I can see him, then he can see me. And if we can see each other, then what if –?
Before she could finish her thought, a hand the size of a garbage tin lid had snatched her from behind the rock. Charlie blurred out of view, but she could still hear him clearly enough. ‘Oh, no you don’t!’ he yelled. ‘You put me down!’
The alien did – and a second later, Amelia was plonked into the grass too, right next to him and Sophie T.
‘Nice work,’ grinned Beard. ‘Three human pups will bring an excellent price.’
Amelia shuffled over to Sophie T and put an arm around her. She was as stiff as a doll, but her hand was now clenched into a fist. The grass rustled around them.
‘Do you think our buyer will be interested?’
Beard scoffed. ‘The pit mistress won’t be interested in them!’
‘Pit mistress?’ said Foxy. ‘You don’t mean – are you telling me you intend to sell that magnificent grawk to a pit-fighting gang?’
Amelia looked at Charlie, horrified. They were hunting Grawk!
Charlie nodded grimly, but then shot Amelia a significant
look. Her eyes widened as she guessed what he was thinking: things were looking very bad for them – almost Krskn-level bad, with all this talk of being sold to aliens – but they’d just heard a chink opening in the aliens’ plan.
‘You savages!’ Foxy howled. ‘I thought you were selling to a zoo, at least – but pit-fighting? You butchers!’
Yep. Foxy was no longer on the space-giants’ side. That left the tiniest hope he might decide to be on theirs.
‘Try to move,’ Charlie whispered to Sophie T. ‘If you can hear me, if you’re not still unconscious, try to move. We’re going to try to rescue you.’
Sophie T lay frozen, not even an eyelid flickered, but she made a little grunt in the back of her throat that sounded a lot like, ‘Huh!’ Amelia noticed her fist tightening until the knuckles bulged.
‘She can hear us,’ she said, and began massaging Sophie T’s hand and wrist. ‘She’s trying.’
‘Oh, I am sick of your yapping,’ Beard growled, and Amelia started, thinking he was speaking to her. But the giant was still staring down at Foxy. ‘You took the job, now do the job. I doubt you’ll have anything to complain about when you get paid.’
Amelia sank lower into the grass.
‘It’s working,’ Charlie breathed as Sophie T’s shoulders moved under his clumsy back rub.
‘It’s not about the money!’ Foxy said. ‘I wanted to save –’
‘Look,’ Spike sighed. ‘It’s only one grawk. Look at the big picture: are you going to save it, or save yourself? Because only one of you is going to come out of this happy. Why not you?’
The Dark Giants Page 5
