by Tom Bradman
Then he felt the ground start to shake.
Chapter Eight
Big Momma
‘Oh no, n-n-not again…’ stammered Yasmin, shivering with the cold. They looked at each other as the shaking grew more intense, a deep rumbling noise drowning the sound of the storm. A ridge appeared in the snow and swiftly travelled towards them. There was no time to get out of the way before the ice beneath their feet seemed to jump, throwing the three of them to the ground.
A giant worm burst from the ground, sending a huge fountain of snow into the air and trumpeting like a thousand elephants all at once. Another one followed, then another and another, until eight of the immense creatures formed a circle round the friends and towered over them. The worms bellowed and moaned and moved their heads from side to side, their mouths gaping wide.
‘Well, it’s been nice knowing you guys,’ said Yuri. ‘Mind you, this is pretty amazing. I never imagined I might end up as a snack for a giant alien worm.’
‘And I bet the poor creatures never imagined they’d end up eating raw geek,’ said Yasmin. ‘They’ll probably take one bite and spit you straight out again.’
‘Relax, you two,’ said Luke. ‘I think they would have eaten us by now if that’s what they wanted to do. It’s not like we could do anything about it.’
Suddenly a small shape climbed down from the back of one of the worms and came dashing towards the children. A small shape that made yip-yip noises.
‘MILLY!’ they cried out together. They were delighted to see her, but Milly seemed beside herself with joy at seeing them. She jumped into Luke’s arms and licked his face, her long, green tongue rasping over his cheeks and nose.
‘I don’t mean to interrupt…’ said Yasmin. The worm Milly had climbed off was bowing down, laying its body flat on the snow with its immense mouth close to Luke. Milly threw herself from his arms and clambered up onto its back again. She stood, looking at the children and yip-yipping.
‘She’s trying to tell us something,’ murmured Luke, and then he grinned. ‘Listen, I might be completely crazy, but it looks like we’re going to be saved. I think the worm Milly is standing on is her mum, and she’s offering us a ride.’
‘That’s a bit of a stretch, Luke,’ said Yuri. ‘I mean, where’s your evidence?’
‘Oh, be quiet, Yuri, and give me a leg up,’ said Yasmin. ‘You can stay here and freeze to death if you like, but I’m willing to take my chance with Milly.’
Yuri scowled at her, but did as he was told. The giant worm’s hide was rough, but surprisingly easy to climb. In no time at all the friends were sitting on the creature’s back, Milly on Luke’s lap.
‘OK, how do we tell Big Momma here where we want to go?’ said Yasmin.
‘I suppose we could try getting Milly to do it for us,’ said Luke. He stroked the little alien and looked into her eyes. ‘Er… could you ask your mum to take us back to the research station? We’d like to catch up with the nasty men, too.’
Milly did a lot more yip-yipping, and they felt the giant worm beginning to move, slowly at first, but soon gathering speed. The other worms followed, and soon the children were at the head of a great column of giant worms racing across the snowy wastes, the wind and snow streaming into their faces. They had to hold on tight, but Luke knew they were having the time of their lives.
‘Now this is what I call real fun!’ he yelled. ‘Is this totally cool or what?’
‘And I don’t even care that it’s freezing cold!’ shrieked Yasmin, laughing.
‘Hey, I can see the research station already!’ shouted Yuri. ‘And there’s the hover-jeep. At this speed we’ll overtake them before they make it back…’
And that was exactly what happened. Luke pointed out the hover-jeep to Milly, and she yip-yipped to her mum. Seconds later the worms forced the hover-jeep to stop and surrounded it. The doors opened and Quint and his pals emerged looking terrified of the giant worms looming over them. Then Quint scowled and tried to pull himself together. He raised his rifle, his hands shaking.
‘Bad idea, Quint,’ said Luke, tutting and shaking his head. ‘I think you and your pals should drop the guns before the worms get cross.’
Right on cue, Milly’s mum opened her mouth wide and trumpeted, sounding like ten thousand elephants this time, the others quickly joining in. Quint, Leon and Biff dropped their rifles and ran screaming towards the research station.
‘Ha, look at them run!’ laughed Luke. ‘If they think Milly’s family are scary, just wait till I tell my mum what they did. They’ll find out what real terror is!’
‘Well, there you go, boys,’ said Yasmin. ‘That proves it once and for all.’
‘What are you talking about, Yasmin?’ said Yuri, looking puzzled.
Luke thought she was going to say that what had happened proved it was always better to be nice to other creatures than nasty. But she didn’t.
‘It proves… that no one in the galaxy should ever mess with us!’ she said.
Luke laughed. He had to admit, she was right.
This electronic edition published in February 2013 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Text copyright © 2011 Tony Bradman and Tom Bradman
Illustrations copyright © 2011 Si Clark
First published 2011 by A & C Black
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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The rights of Tony Bradman, Tom Bradman and Si Clark to be identified as the authors and illustrator of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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eISBN 978-1-4081-6375-7
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