Planet Hell

by Joan Lennon

  PLANET HELL

  JOAN LENNON

  To Readers, Every One of You, Everywhere!

  Contents

  Chapter 1 Dead End

  Chapter 2 Too Many Questions

  Chapter 3 Message in a Bottle

  Chapter 4 Going Up

  Chapter 5 Snip, Snap!

  Chapter 6 Cry Baby

  Chapter 7 Trolls v Monsters

  Chapter 8 The End of Earth

  Chapter 9 Going Underground

  Chapter 10 New Earth

  Chapter 1

  Dead End

  It was dark in the tunnel. Dead dark. But Sam didn’t need to see. He knew every tunnel and cave in the Mine.

  It was too bad the Gang chasing him did too.

  Sam could hear the Gang getting closer. He covered his breathing mask with his hands and tried not to make a sound.

  All the miners wore masks to keep the deadly Mine dust out of their lungs.

  “Nice work, kid,” one of the Gang shouted. “You’ve run into a dead end. There’s no way out.”

  “You’ve been making trouble – again,” shouted another voice. “You’ve been asking too many questions.”

  “We don’t like people who ask questions,” called another man. “We are going to teach you a lesson. You’ve had your last chance.”

  Somebody laughed. Cold sweat ran down Sam’s back.

  Sam tried to think. He knew there must be a way into the air shaft from this tunnel. There should be a small opening covered by a metal grill. But where was it?

  At last his fingers found the metal grill. The opening was tiny, but the air shaft on the other side would be big enough to crawl through.

  “You’re already in trouble, boy. Don’t make it worse,” shouted a voice.

  The Gang was right behind him now!

  Sam ripped the grill out of the wall and jammed himself into the opening.

  He pushed with his feet and pulled with his hands and finally managed to squeeze through the tiny hole.

  They’re too big to get in here, Sam told himself.

  But he was wrong. One of the men was already forcing himself through the tiny opening.

  “I’m going to get you for this, boy,” growled the man.

  Sam backed away. He felt like a rat in a trap.

  Suddenly, Sam felt something move under his hand. It was hard and smooth, like a bottle.

  He didn’t stop to think. He grabbed the bottle, swung his arm and hit the man in the face.

  Sam heard the man’s breathing mask crack. He heard the man shout and swear. But he didn’t wait to see what happened next.

  Sam turned and fled into the darkness.

  Chapter 2

  Too Many Questions

  The Miners had lived underground on Planet Hell for hundreds of years. They drilled Ore out of the rock. Then they turned the Ore into power.

  The power was sent up to the Surface of Hell, and beamed back to Planet Earth.

  People always said that if you worked very hard, the Mining Company would send you home to Earth, as a reward.

  Sam’s dad had been sick with lung rot from the Mine dust. Sam kept saying, “Please, send him back to Earth. He’s worked hard in the Mine all his life. He deserves to go back home to Earth!”

  But nobody listened. And then, it was too late. His dad was dead. The lung rot killed him.

  That was why Sam began to ask questions. If his dad didn’t deserve to go home, who did?

  He asked everyone, saying, “Do you know anybody who got sent back to Earth? Do you? Anybody?”

  Everybody knew stories about someone who had been sent back to Earth. But nobody knew anybody real, with a real name, and a real life. All they had were stories.

  Soon the Gang found out about Sam’s questions. And they were very, very angry.

  Sam’s mum had died when he was a baby, so his dad had brought him up.

  When Sam was little, his dad told him stories about Planet Earth.

  “Earth is all blue and green, and you can live on the Surface there,” he said. “The sun shines in the sky and the air is fresh and clean. That’s where our people come from.”

  “Will I get to go there one day?” Sam asked.

  “One day, if you work very hard,” said Sam’s dad.

  But it hadn’t turned out like that.

  Now Sam was all alone, and the Gang was after him.

  “I wish you were here, Dad,” Sam whispered in the darkness. “I wish you were here.”

  Chapter 3

  Message in a Bottle

  Sam was still hiding in the air shafts. He was panting hard. He could hear a huge digging machine bashing out a new tunnel nearby. BAM … BAM … BAM …

  Sam lit an electric candle and looked down. He still had the bottle in his hand. Suddenly, he saw something inside the bottle …

  He took the top off the bottle, turned it upside down and shook it. A piece of paper fell out. It had writing on it in large letters.

  Hey! Trolls!

  If you’re really down there, come and get me!

  I’m not afraid of you!

  Sam turned the piece of paper over. On the back in much smaller writing it said:

  I only wrote that message

  because they made me. If you are real,

  please, please don’t come up!

  Sam read it three times. It didn’t make any sense.

  Who can have written it? he wondered.

  Sam’s dad had taught him how to write all the letters – but not like this. Not with all those loops and curly bits. Sam didn’t know anybody in the Mine who could write like that.

  It was almost as if somebody from the Surface had written the message. Put it in the bottle. Thrown it down the air shaft.

  But that’s just stupid – no one can live on the Surface! Sam thought. Of course, there were lots of stories about horrible monsters living up there. They had no eyes and ate rock and drank each other’s boiling blood. But the stories were just to scare little kids.

  His dad had told him all about what it was really like on the Surface. There was blazing sun and terrible heat. The air was full of poison. The land was all burned up.

  “That’s why they called this Planet Hell,” his dad had said.

  Sam shoved the bottle into his pocket. He just wanted to go home. He crept along the air shafts until he came to a secret opening at the back of his cave. It was covered with a metal grill. He reached out to pull it open – and froze.

  He heard a sound.

  Sam peered into his cave. He’d left an electric candle lit, but it was dying now. The room was almost dark. Then Sam saw a shape move in the shadows.

  The Gang had got there before him.

  Chapter 4

  Going Up

  Sam tried to stop shaking.

  What could he do? The Gang knew every part of the Mine. There was nowhere to hide.

  He looked at the bottle with the message inside.

  Everyone says that nobody can live on the Surface, he thought. But what if everyone is wrong? I could go and find out. After all, what have I got to lose?

  There was no way but up.

  * * *

  Sam started to climb through the air shafts. The air for the Mines came from the Surface. There were filters to take the poison out of it. And there were huge fans with sharp spinning blades to blow the fresh air into the tunnels.

  The blades made cutting sounds as they slid past each other. Shiiiip. Shiiiip. Then the blades would stop dead for a moment, and then start spinning the other way, to blow the used air out again.

  That will be my moment, thought Sam. When the blades stop. That’s when I’ll climb through.

  The air shafts ran for miles. It would be easy to get lost. But Sam’s dad had taught hi
m how to see the whole Mine in his mind in 3D. Like a map, only better.

  Sometimes the air shafts passed by other Miners’ caves. Sam could hear people talking and moving about. It made him feel lonely.

  It made him want to turn back.

  Then he felt the bottle in his pocket. Come on, Sam, he told himself. Keep moving.

  Suddenly he heard it. The sound he had been dreading.

  The sound of the fan.

  The blades of the fan sliced through the air at a terrible speed. Sam listened hard, waiting for the sound to change.

  There! The blades were slowing down. The fast slicing sound was becoming a slower shiiiiip … shiiiiip …

  Now! Without stopping to think, Sam scrambled up the air shaft towards the fan.

  Shiiiiippppp …

  And silence. The fan was still.

  With shaking hands, Sam reached up and touched the razor sharp metal. He pushed the blades apart and started to pull himself through the narrow gap. He felt his shirt catch and rip. Then he heard the fan’s engine starting up again, getting ready to turn the fan in the other direction.

  He climbed as fast as he could and dragged his foot through the gap just as the blades started to spin again.

  Sam carried on, his heart beating fast as the deadly blades sliced through the air below him.

  One slip, he thought, and I’ll be cut into bits. No one will ever know what happened to me. No one will know, and no one will care.

  Sam gritted his teeth, and went on climbing.

  Chapter 5

  Snip, Snap!

  On the Surface of Hell, a girl called Anna woke up crying.

  Her robot came into her bedroom, sat on the side of her bed and stroked Anna’s long hair.

  Everyone on Hell was cared for by robots.

  The children had to go to school, but the adults could do anything they wanted. All the hard work was done by the robots. The robots took care of everything.

  “Oh dear – what is the matter?” asked the robot.

  “Nothing,” said Anna, rubbing the tears from her face. But it was a lie.

  Anna had been having bad dreams again. Dreams about trolls living under the ground who were going to drag her away.

  Anna was angry with herself. I’m too old to be having dreams about trolls, she thought. Only little kids have dreams like that!

  Her robot looked at her. “Are you unhappy? What can I do to help?”

  “It’s nothing,” lied Anna. “I’m fine.”

  But really, she was very unhappy indeed.

  Life on the Surface of Planet Hell was good. Robots did everything to keep the humans safe and happy. In school, the robot teachers said, “This planet is a miracle. The Final War on Earth meant that no creatures could live there any more. The humans had to find another home. When they landed here, they called it Hell because it looked like a world of fire and nothing else. But there was something else. There was power. Endless, free power.”

  When Anna was little, she asked, “Where does the power come from?”

  “From under the ground,” said the robot teachers. “When they first came to the planet, the humans took apart the space ship they’d come in and built robots out of its parts. And with the help of the robots, they built the force fields.”

  Everybody knew how important the force fields were.

  “The force fields keep out the harmful rays of the sun so that we can live on a clean, safe planet,” said the robot teachers. “Without the force fields, the last of the humans would die out. We need the power from under the ground to keep the force fields going.”

  The power came up a shaft from deep inside Planet Hell. There were other shafts too, hidden in caves in the hills.

  The air coming up from these holes was hot and smelled bad, like rotten eggs. And sometimes, if you listened hard, you could hear things. Clanking and bashing noises, or metal sliding across metal with a slicing sound.

  In the playground, the big kids said, “It’s the trolls! When a baby troll is born the mummy troll cuts off its leg, SNIP! and cuts off its hand, SNAP! and then she sews on a metal leg and a scissor hand. That’s their metal legs you hear, clanking, and their scissor hands, slicing. The trolls come up out of the ground in the middle of the night when you’re asleep. They sneak into your bedroom and SNIP! they cut off your leg. Then SNAP! they cut off your hand!”

  All the little kids would scream and giggle.

  Except for Anna. She just screamed.

  Now she was one of the big kids, and she was still scared.

  I don’t believe in trolls! she told herself again and again. Don’t be such a cry baby!

  But she couldn’t stop being scared.

  And then things got worse.

  Jen, the biggest bully in the school, found out about Anna’s fears.

  Chapter 6

  Cry Baby

  Jen gave Anna’s arm a hard pinch. “Did you throw the message in the bottle down the hole like I said? Don’t you dare lie to me!”

  Anna nodded. “Yes! Let go! I did it, just like you said.”

  The other girls were laughing at how scared Anna was.

  “What a cry baby!” they whispered.

  “There was a metal grill over the hole but I pushed the bottle through,” cried Anna.

  “Good,” said Jen. “Now the trolls will read what you wrote. And they’ll come and snip off your leg and snap off your hand and sew on metal ones. And then they’ll drag you under the ground. They won’t let you go till you’re an old, crazy woman!”

  “Oh look, she’s crying again,” the other girls giggled.

  “Bye-bye, cry baby,” said Jen and walked away.

  “I’m not! I’m not!” Anna sobbed. But she knew they were right. She was a cry baby.

  She hated herself.

  * * *

  Anna’s robot found her lying on her bed.

  “Are you unhappy? What is the matter?” asked the robot.

  “Nothing’s the matter!” cried Anna. “Just leave me alone!”

  “If that will make you happy,” said her robot.

  Anna ran out of the house.

  Every time a robot saw her, it stopped working and asked, “Are you unhappy? How can I help you?”

  But Anna just ran on.

  Anna didn’t notice that Jen was following her. She didn’t think about where she was going.

  She just ran on and on until she realised that she’d come up the path to a cave. The same cave where she’d thrown the message in the bottle down the hole!

  Chapter 7

  Trolls v Monsters

  Sam was climbing in the dark now. His last electric candle had died. He wasn’t sure where he was any more.

  Don’t panic, Sam, he told himself. You must be close now.

  His arms and legs shook with tiredness. Hand over hand he climbed, and then suddenly Sam realised – he could see his hands!

  There was light up above.

  This must be it, he thought. This must be the Surface …

  “OW!”

  Sam had banged his head on a metal grill. He gripped it and pushed hard. For a moment the grill stuck, and then it fell back and Sam pulled himself up and over the edge.

  He was in a cave, but even in the shadows the light was so bright it was like a knife in his eyes. Tears ran down his face, but he forced his eyes open. He crawled to the opening of the cave. What he saw made his head spin.

  This can’t be real! he thought. Where’s the boiling rock? Where’s the burned ground? And the poisoned air?

  The Surface of Planet Hell was beautiful.

  There were bright colours everywhere – green fields, buildings painted red and gold and purple, blue streams and white paths. Moving about were shiny silver figures, like human-shaped machines. Sam took off his breathing mask and sniffed. The air was clean and pure.

  Then he looked up. There was no stone roof over his head, just empty space that went higher and higher. It made him feel dizzy and he looked down qui
ckly with a gulp.

  Where are the monsters? he wondered.

  And then he heard one – a monster coming up the path towards the cave. It was moving fast and making a lot of noise. It sounded huge and dangerous and angry!

  Sam tried to hide but in his panic he couldn’t find the opening to the air shaft. Too late! He heard the monster stop and gasp. It had seen him.

  Slowly, Sam turned around. He squinted at the monster. It had a huge head and a tall body, like a giant mushroom. It wasn’t very big for a monster – about the size of a person – but for a mushroom it was gigantic!

  Sam shut his eyes tight and pulled the bottle out of his pocket. He held it out.

  “Is this yours?” he asked.

  The monster spoke. “I sent a message in a bottle to the trolls! Please, please don’t cut off my hand!”

  “What?” said Sam. “Cut off your hand? That’s horrible! Why would I want to do that?”

  He opened his eyes wide for a second but the light hurt horribly. He cried out with pain.

  “Here,” said the monster. “Put my hat on.”

  Sam opened his eyes a little and saw the monster was taking its head off! He nearly choked with fear. Then he looked again. The monster was just taking off a big round hat!

  “It will stop the light hurting your eyes,” said the monster.

  Sam took the hat and put it on. He felt silly, but at least he could see better.

  But what he saw didn’t make sense.

  The monster wasn’t a monster at all. It was a girl. Except she wasn’t like any girl he’d ever seen before.

  She didn’t have a shaved head like all the Miners. Instead, she had long hair. She wasn’t wearing the dark, heavy Miners’ clothes that didn’t show the dirt or rip easily. Her clothes were floaty and glittery and changed colour when she moved.