Max and the Millions

by Ross Montgomery

  “Understand, boys?” said Mr. Pitt.

  Max grinned. “Perfectly, sir.”

  “Clear as crystal,” said Sasha.

  “Oh crud,” groaned Luke. “Here goes.”

  * * *

  “Go, go, go!”

  The flies swooped. Ivy led the squadron into a dive, bombing past Mr. Pitt’s face at superfast speed.

  “Fire!”

  The warflies attacked, flinging round after round of catapult fire at Mr. Pitt’s eyes. His face slowly twisted into a bellow of pain, and his free hand swung up…

  “He’s swatting!” cried Ivy. “Scramble!”

  The warflies zipped away just as Mr. Pitt brought up his hand and punched himself square in the face. The warflies swarmed back round for another attack.

  “Stage two!” Ivy shouted. “Bin King, are you ready?”

  She turned to the warfly beside her. It was piloted by the Bin King. He seemed different somehow—his crown was gone. For the first time in his life, he looked happy.

  “You’re sure you want to do this?” said Luke.

  The Bin King nodded. “This is the only way I can make up for everything I’ve done.”

  He nodded to Ivy, and Ivy nodded back. Luke saluted him.

  “The Floor will never forget your sacrifice, Bin King. Everyone will remember your name!”

  The Bin King smiled. “Thanks! But please, don’t remember me as the Bin King. Remember my real name.”

  He tilted his warfly sharply in the air and shot forward, straight into Mr. Pitt’s open mouth. He disappeared into the dark forever, punching the air with both hands.

  “It’s Terry!”

  * * *

  “AAAARRFGHGHGG!”

  Mr. Pitt gagged and spluttered on the fly, reeling around like a broken toy. The trash bag fell from his grasp—

  “Now, Max, now!” Luke shouted through the earpiece.

  Max flew forward and grabbed the trash bag just before it hit the racks of grinding teeth—an inch more and it would have been destroyed. He nearly lost his balance and toppled into the machine himself, but Sasha dragged him back.

  “NOOOO!”

  Mr. Pitt’s face was covered in welts and blisters from the warfly attacks. His eyes boiled with murderous rage. He tried to leap forward….

  But something was pulling him back. The tails of his suit were caught in the garbage disposal machine. He was being dragged backward, into the racks of grinding teeth. He reached for the lever, but it was too far.

  “Boys! Quick!” he screamed. “Turn it off!”

  Sasha smiled. “You’ll be fine, Mr. Pitt…so long as you don’t mind losing your suit. The question is: Is it worth it?”

  Max and Sasha ran to the door with the trash bag, followed by Luke’s warfly. Mr. Pitt bellowed with fury and heaved against the machine…until, with an almighty RRRRRRRRIP, the machine tore off his jacket, shirt and trousers and chewed them into highly nutritious mulch. The headmaster was left standing in his socks and underpants while the warflies swarmed round him, stinging every inch of his body.

  Max tore the bar from the door handles, and the builders fell into the room, collapsing into a pile on the floor. Max and Sasha clambered over them before the men could get to their feet.

  “There he is!” said the foreman, pointing at Pitt. “And he’s naked! Get him!”

  But Mr. Pitt wasn’t going to stop now. He couldn’t even feel pain anymore. He threw himself at the builders with a battle cry and sent them flying like bowling pins, charging after Max and Sasha as they ran up the stairs….

  * * *

  Luke gasped. “Max! He’s right behind you!”

  Pitt was getting closer, and the warflies no longer seemed to be making any difference. Luke turned to Mr. Darrow for help, but he was still in his trance, his mouth gaping and his eyes gazing blankly ahead.

  “Ivy, they’re not going to make it!” cried Luke. “We have to get everyone out of the trash bag, now!”

  He pointed to the bag in Max’s arms. He could see the slit that the Greens had made to escape, and the Red Queen waiting beside it. The rest of the Floor were organized into a colossal human chain behind her so that no one would be left behind.

  “It’s too dangerous!” said Ivy. “We’ll never be able to carry people out with the bag moving around like that—we’ll drop them!”

  “Then…what do we do?” cried Luke.

  Ivy looked ahead, and smiled. Max and Sasha had reached the top of the staircase and were running into the foyer.

  “I think these two might already have it covered,” she said.

  * * *

  Max and Sasha burst into the foyer.

  “Girls, quick!” cried Max. “Time for plan B!”

  Above them, the girls stood on the X-shaped walkway, armed with bottles of glue and buckets of glitter. Max and Sasha jumped out of the way just as Mr. Pitt burst through the doors.

  “Now!” cried Joy.

  The girls let rip. Within seconds, Mr. Pitt was doused from head to toe with glue and smashed with twenty bucketfuls of bright red, blue and green glitter. Choked and blinded, he swung his arms through the glittery cloud and roared like a stunned bear. Sasha grabbed Max by the arm.

  “Quick! This way!”

  They flew up another set of stairs to the next floor, but Mr. Pitt had heard Sasha shout. He clawed the glitter from his eyes and threw himself after them, his arms stretched toward the bag….

  * * *

  “It didn’t work!” cried Luke. “He’s going to catch them! Mr. Darrow, wake up!”

  Luke shook Mr. Darrow as hard as he could, but it was no use. The clouds of glitter filled the air around them like fireworks, exploding in colossal plumes of red, green and blue. Mr. Darrow even had a faint smile on his lips….

  Then he snapped out of the trance.

  “Tell Max to get on that walkway, now!” he said. “Ivy, how do you feel about causing as much damage as possible?”

  “Great,” she said.

  “Thought so.” Mr. Darrow pointed above them. “Just do everything I say….”

  * * *

  Max was almost at the top of the stairs. Sasha flung open a door and held it open for the girls as they fled.

  “Max, quick!” he cried, waving an arm. “Through here!”

  “No, Max, get on the walkway!” came Luke’s voice.

  Max skidded on his heels and tore down the X-shaped walkway instead. There was a door on the other side—he had no idea what was behind it, but he had to trust Luke. He grabbed the door handle, wrenched at it—but the door was locked.

  “WRONG CHOICE, MAX!”

  Max spun round…straight into Mr. Pitt.

  “DID YOU REALLY THINK YOU COULD DEFEAT ME?”

  The headmaster shoved Max backward and whipped the bag out of his hands. In one go, he threw the bag to the floor, lifted up one foot…

  “No!” cried Max.

  “NO!” cried Luke.

  …and stamped on it.

  The crunch of the bag was sickening. Pitt stamped on it again, and again, and again, and again. He jumped on the bag in a frenzy of rage until it was completely flattened.

  “I WILL NOT BE BEATEN BY A DEAF BOY AND A UNICORN!”

  “It’s a Sparkle Pony.”

  Mr. Pitt swung round. Sasha stood on the other end of the walkway in his purple onesie, a mysterious smile on his face.

  “I’m not a unicorn. I’m a Sparkle Pony. They’re a completely different species. Many thousands of years ago, there was a beautiful horse goddess called Glimmer, who—”

  “What on earth are you on about?” snapped Mr. Pitt.

  Sasha smiled. “Of course you don’t care about the details. And that’s why you’ll never win, Mr. Pitt: because you’ll never understand th
at details matter.”

  “For example,” said Max, getting back to his feet, “that’s not actually our trash bag.”

  Mr. Pitt looked down at the bag—Max was right. This bag was filled with old milk from last term. Mr. Pitt’s legs were now covered in cheesy green yogurt.

  “Our trash bag is over there,” said Max.

  He pointed to Joy, who was holding up the correct bag and waving.

  “We switched them when we came in the foyer. We thought someone like you wouldn’t notice the difference.”

  Mr. Pitt growled. “Why, you little…”

  He made to grab Max—but stopped. There was a fly buzzing in front of his face. Mr. Pitt jerked his head back, expecting another sting, but none came. He focused on the fly…and his eyes boggled.

  There were tiny people riding on the fly’s back. They were all waving at him.

  One of them was Mr. Darrow.

  Max put one hand to his hearing aid. “Mr. Pitt, they’re asking if you could hold your hand out, please?”

  Mr. Pitt held out his hand, dumbstruck. The fly deposited something into the center of his palm, then quickly buzzed away. Mr. Pitt held it up.

  It was a single screw.

  The walkway supports around him began to creak. It might have only been one screw, but without it the poorly built walkway wasn’t strong enough to hold itself up. One by one, the supports started to pull away from the walls. Mr. Pitt didn’t notice—he was too busy staring dumbfounded at the fly that was buzzing away.

  “RUN, MAX!” cried Sasha.

  Max, Sasha and the girls ran outside just as the walkway snapped free from its supports and cracks appeared in the glass ceiling. It was the butterfly effect—one tiny change was enough to destroy everything Mr. Pitt had built, and bring him down with it.

  In many ways, the odds of the plan coming together so perfectly were astronomical—impossible, even. It was nothing short of a miracle.

  But then, we all know about miracles by now.

  Max, Sasha and Joy sat in the bushes with the trash bag between them. They watched as Mr. Pitt was led away by the police, kicking and shouting. Sasha tapped Max on the shoulder.

  “Do you reckon he’ll go to jail?”

  Max shrugged. “Probably not. But I don’t think he’ll ever be a headmaster again.”

  The governors had turned up shortly after the Pitt Building collapsed, and found Mr. Pitt in the car park in his underwear. He was covered in blisters and old milk, and was raving about a tiny janitor riding a fly. By the time the builders had reappeared saying something about the school being bankrupt, the governors had heard all they needed.

  “And what about the school?” said Joy. “Is St. Goliath’s going to close down now?”

  Sasha patted her on the back. “They’ll think of something, Joy. In the meantime, we need to get you back to the boardinghouse. The governors will be checking the rest of the school soon!”

  Joy groaned. “Can’t I come with you?”

  Sasha shook his head. “Max and I have something important to do, and—”

  Max put a hand on his shoulder.

  “Let her come. We couldn’t have done any of this without her.”

  They made their way to Mr. Darrow’s potting shed, and Max carefully placed the trash bag on the table. He reached into it and found the microscope goggles. He pulled them on and focused the lenses so he could see thousands of tiny faces peeking through the slit in the plastic.

  “You can come out now,” said Max. “This is it—your new home!”

  Max knew the floor people wouldn’t understand his words, but they understood enough. They started pouring out of the bag and filling the trays on the table. Max smiled.

  “We did it! The floor people finally have somewhere safe to live.”

  Max felt another tap on his shoulder.

  “But, Max,” said Sasha, “what about you? You’re not still going to be expelled, are you?”

  Joy gripped Max’s arm. “We won’t let them do it, Max! We’ll tell the governors what happened—they’re bound to let you stay!”

  Max shared a glance with Sasha. They both wished Joy were right, but they knew the truth. People rarely believe children. How could they explain everything that had happened—all the damage they had caused to the school—without giving away the truth about the tiny world?

  “It doesn’t matter, Joy,” said Max. “Mr. Darrow’s coming back, remember? When he does, we can work something out together and—”

  “Max.”

  Max froze. There was a voice in his ear that he hadn’t expected to hear. He looked at the warfly hovering in front of him….

  And his heart swelled.

  Standing beside Luke was a girl with red hair, and standing beside her was Mr. Darrow.

  * * *

  “Yes, it’s me.”

  Mr. Darrow stood holding the microphone. Max stared back at him, still gobsmacked.

  “I’ve been here all along, and I’ve been watching you. You did brilliantly, Max—I’m so proud of you.”

  It took a while for the words to register with Max, and for the blush to spread across his cheeks like a sunset. Mr. Darrow cleared his throat.

  “I’ve been trying to find you for a long time now. I needed you to help me get back to normal size. But now…”

  Mr. Darrow looked at Luke and Ivy beside him and gave them a warm smile.

  “Now I don’t want to go back. There’s nothing for me in the big world anymore. No wife, no family—just my models. I used to think they were everything, but I was wrong. They’re nothing compared with being around good people. The only thing I don’t want to leave behind is you.”

  Mr. Darrow looked up at Max and sighed.

  “Saying goodbye to you will be very, very hard, Max. But we don’t have to say goodbye. Not if you don’t want to.”

  Max stared at Mr. Darrow in confusion.

  “Look inside the trash bag—in the trouser pocket. There’s something you should see.”

  * * *

  Max reached inside the trash bag and pulled out a tiny glass bottle.

  “That’s the serum that made all this happen,” said Mr. Darrow. “The secret ingredient that made me shrink to this size. I spent twenty years looking for it, and now it’s all gone…except for one drop.”

  Max looked inside the bottle.

  “It’s your choice, Max,” said Mr. Darrow. “If you want to stay behind, I understand completely. But if you want to join us, then drink that drop. It’ll be enough to shrink you.”

  Max looked at Mr. Darrow with shock.

  “I know how lonely you are,” said Mr. Darrow. “I know how miserable you were at your aunt’s. You never told me about it, but I could see it in your eyes. It was one of the reasons I agreed to teach you—I wanted to help. Of course, in the end it was you who helped me.”

  Max looked at the serum. He thought about what the rest of his life would be like now—being expelled, living with his great-aunt Meredith on the other side of the country….

  “If you stay with us, you’ll be tiny—but you’ll be hidden, too. You’ll be safe. We’ll have enough time to work out a way to safely return to normal size together. But it’s your choice.”

  Max felt a hand on his shoulder.

  “Hey, is that Mr. Darrow on that fly?”

  Sasha stood behind Max, grinning with amazement.

  “No way! What’s he saying?”

  Max swallowed.

  “Er…just explaining how he got so small.”

  Sasha smiled. “Wow! You’ll have to tell me all about it! Look, I might have to go back to the boardinghouse. Joy’s exhausted.”

  He nodded to his sister, who was slumped against his leg, her eyes drooping.

  “Are you coming?”


  Max looked at Sasha—the nicest, kindest person he had ever met. His new friend. Then he turned to Mr. Darrow—the man who’d taught him everything he knew. The closest thing Max had ever had to a father. Max had never had to make a choice like this before. He looked between them, his face torn.

  “I…I…”

  Then Max saw Luke and the red-haired girl standing beside Mr. Darrow. He saw the millions of tiny people below them, gazing up at him on the table, all of them relying on him to survive. And he knew exactly what he had to do.

  “No, Sasha,” he said quietly. “I’m not coming. Sorry.”

  “OK—I’ll meet you at the boardinghouse later and—”

  “No,” said Max. “I mean…I’m staying here. With the floor people.”

  Sasha frowned. “What? Max, you can’t live in a shed, that’s weird.”

  “Not like that,” said Max. “I mean live with the floor people—in their world. Mr. Darrow says there’s a way to do it. I’m going to shrink to their size and live with them.”

  Sasha still didn’t understand. “Max, you’re not making any sense! If you do that, I can’t go with you—I’ve got Joy to look after!”

  “I know you can’t,” said Max.

  He had to watch the realization dawn across Sasha’s face. It broke his heart.

  “What’s going on?”

  Joy snapped awake, gazing up at them through half-shut eyes. Sasha swallowed hard and quickly regained his composure. He rubbed her head with a reassuring smile.

  “Hey, Joy, can you wait outside for a second?”

  She nodded sleepily. “OK. I’ll go get some of Mr. Darrow’s carrots for the girls. We’ve been taking them all year.”

  “I knew it!” snapped Mr. Darrow.

  Joy stepped outside, and Sasha closed the door.