Taken Over

by Z. Fraillon

  ‘We’ll have to get the teachers,’ Felix replied. ‘It’s the only way. We can’t do anything on our own.’ He turned to Boris. ‘Stenka said they’d communicate with the prefects in case of an emergency. Have you got your radio?’

  Boris pulled out his radio, and pressed the button on the side.

  Eeeoorryyyyyeeeeeccckk! A high-pitched squeal came from the radio.

  ‘There’s interference from something!’ said Boris.

  ‘Maybe it’s these,’ said Saffy, pulling out her tin can walkie-talkie out of her pocket.

  ‘Can’t you turn them off?’ asked Boris, exasperated.

  ‘They are off.’ Saffy flicked the switch at the bottom of the walkie-talkies. The feedback became louder and more high-pitched.

  Boris moved his radio closer to the walkie-talkies. There was a bright spark of light and a loud bang.

  ‘Ow!’ yelped Boris, dropping his radio into the snow. It sizzled and let off steam.

  ‘Well, you can’t expect them to be perfect,’ huffed Saffy.

  At least the squealing had stopped.

  Jasper turned to Felix. ‘Could we just wait it out? I mean, after the Skrinkerscreech have hatched and fed on the screechwort, they’ll leave, right?’

  ‘Who knows?’ said Felix. ‘I learnt in my lesson with Stenka that they always lay twenty-three eggs. So there will be twenty-three new monsters that have just hatched, plus the original nineteen monsters. And heaps of food for the hatchlings. They might decide they like it here – especially once they’ve killed off any other monsters in the area.’

  Jasper gulped. ‘We’ve got to do something.’

  ‘What does the queen look like?’ asked Saffy.

  ‘Oh, you know,’ said Felix. ‘Enormous mutant insect. Freaky eyeballs, nippers that could cut you in half. Like the other one we saw – but bigger. If she hasn’t laid yet, she’ll have an abdomen full of monster eggs. And she doesn’t have a stinger, so she’ll be surrounded by drones to protect her.’

  Saffy handed Jasper the binoculars. ‘I can’t see her, can you?’

  Jasper checked out the scene. Saffy was right. The queen was missing. ‘Maybe the monsters didn’t use your nest, Saff. Maybe they made another one.’

  ‘No way,’ Saffy scowled. ‘It was perfect.’

  Boris was pacing up and down in the snow. ‘Do I protect the students? Or do I deliver them as ordered?’ he muttered to himself. ‘They are both orders. But which one is the overriding order? Which one do I follow?’ His eyes were darting all over the place. ‘I can’t ask my superior, because he doesn’t know about monsters ... and ... and –’

  ‘The first thing we need to do is get you two back to safety,’ Felix interrupted. ‘Saffy and I can handle the rest, but you two could get killed, so come on. MOVE IT!’ he barked.

  Jasper had never seen Felix so serious. He suspected any argument from him would just get him karate kicked, so he nodded.

  Felix’s outburst seemed to convince Boris that, for now, the most important matter was survival. ‘Keep low, and move slowly,’ Boris whispered. ‘The enemy will be intent on gathering supplies for their nest. They think they have the whole army captive, so they won’t be expecting an ambush.’

  ‘There are too many of them,’ said Felix. ‘We need a better plan.’

  ‘You’re right, Felix,’ Saffy said. ‘Let’s go to the Reversal Room. That’s the safest place. And it’s where the teachers are.’ She paused. ‘Um, does anyone know where the Reversal Room actually is?’

  Felix and Jasper shrugged.

  ‘Not really,’ said Jasper. ‘But I think I know how we can get back into the school. Come on.’

  They came to a stop outside the door Jasper had used before. It would take them through the tunnel and back to the bathroom.

  ‘I thought I was the only one who knew about this tunnel,’ said Saffy as she climbed through the door into the tunnel beyond.

  Typical, thought Jasper. But he had to smile. Saffy made it her business to know every exit in the school.

  Boris just managed to squeeze himself inside the tunnel. Then Felix and Jasper climbed in behind him, and closed the door.

  ‘Are you sure about this?’ Felix asked as they crawled along the tunnel.

  ‘What else can we do?’ said Jasper. ‘Anyway, if we get attacked, I’m the one who is facing a painful death. All you have to worry about is being covered in hives and looking like a hideous freak.’

  They followed the tunnel for ten minutes until they reached the air vent above the bathroom. One by one, they dropped down to the floor below.

  Felix took his asthma puffer out of his back pocket and breathed deeply. ‘Thank goodness that’s over. Tunnels are creepy.’

  There was a muffled scream in the corridor outside the bathroom.

  ‘But probably not as creepy as whatever’s on the other side of that door,’ said Jasper.

  ‘Let’s check it out,’ said Boris.

  Felix pocketed his puffer and grabbed a spare flask of dog drool from his hunt belt. He pressed it into Boris’s hands. ‘You might need this,’ he said. ‘Even you couldn’t squash these insects.’

  13

  Boris kicked open the door, his dog drool at the ready. Directly outside the bathroom was a ring of drones. They didn’t even look up as the door flew off its hinges. Their stingers were pointed at a slumped figure lying in the middle of the circle, and they were intently wiggling closer and closer.

  Jasper gasped. ‘Matheson!’ he screamed. The drone in front of Jasper looked up, its antennae twitching and its nippers slicing the air. But it kept its stinger trained on Matheson.

  ‘RUN!’ Felix commanded Jasper.

  But there was no way Jasper was backing out of this. If it wasn’t for him, Matheson would be tucked up safely in the Reversal Room with all the other Whispered kids.

  Why didn’t he go back when he saw I’d escaped? Jasper thought.

  But he knew already. When Woof raised the alarm, Matheson probably went through the door on the other side of the bathroom trying to save Jasper, and he didn’t make it back to safety himself. There was no way Jasper was letting Matheson get stung to death now.

  Jasper gave an almighty yell and charged forwards. He was pulled back by Boris, who flung Jasper towards Felix and Saffy. Meanwhile, Boris leapt skywards and sprayed a long arch of dog drool over the drones.

  Boris’s spray hit half of the monsters full-on. They stumbled around, then froze solid. The other drones appeared to be in some sort of killing trance, ignoring everything but Matheson.

  Jasper shook his flask and flung drool over the closest drone. Felix and Saffy threw drool over the other three drones, as Jasper pulled Matheson out of the way.

  There was silence. All the drones were frozen.

  Saffy checked Matheson over. ‘He seems OK.

  Just … unconscious,’ she reported.

  Felix pulled out his asthma puffer and inhaled deeply. ‘That,’ he wheezed, ‘was,’ he took another deep puff, ‘close.’

  ‘Eight down. How many of these things are there, anyway?’ Boris asked, inspecting a frozen drone.

  ‘Er, eighteen. And the queen,’ Jasper replied.

  ‘Great! Eleven more! Well, what are we waiting for?’ Boris nodded.

  ‘I take it you’re feeling the buzz, then?’ Jasper asked.

  ‘Wooohooo!’ Boris replied, jumping in the air.

  ‘No, no, no, no, no,’ Felix said. ‘We need a plan! A really good one! We don’t even know where the queen is. We can’t just waltz around and start spraying! And anyway, we need to go past the Species Studies room. I’m almost out of drool.’ Felix shook his near-empty flask.

  ‘Got it!’ Saffy beamed.

  ‘Is this another plan like the big nest?

  Because that one didn’t turn out too well,’ Jasper pointed out.

  Saffy glared at him. ‘The assembly hall has heaps of fearful vibes, right?’ she said.

  Jasper and Felix nodded. After a
ll, it had been the place where everyone was told about the monsters.

  ‘But there’s somewhere in the school even more terrifying. I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before! Think about it. Somewhere we all dread. A place we all have to confront our fears.’

  ‘The Trail of Terror!’ Felix and Jasper replied. ‘Of course!’

  ‘That is where the queen will be, and that is where we’ll have to go,’ Saffy said triumphantly.

  ‘But what about the Skrinkerscreech?’ Felix whispered. ‘They’ll sense Jasper and Boris in a second.’

  ‘Exactly,’ Saffy smiled.

  Jasper looked at her. ‘Look, I know I can be annoying, but killing me? Don’t you think that’s going a tad too far?’

  Saffy looked thoughtful. ‘Hopefully it won’t get to the killing bit. But we do want the monsters to sense you. Felix, how many drones stay with the queen during nesting?’ she asked.

  ‘Five, I think,’ Felix replied.

  ‘OK, so here’s the plan. We need to tempt those five drones away from the nest. We can’t get to the nest with them in the room, otherwise they’ll just gas us like the others, yeah?’

  Felix and Jasper nodded, and Boris grinned even wider. He was getting the hang of the whole Hunt thing.

  ‘So what will tempt the drones out?’ Saffy prompted.

  ‘The threat of another monster,’ said Jasper.

  ‘Me.’

  ‘Or us,’ Boris added, thumping Jasper on the back and almost sending him flying across the hallway.

  Felix was groaning softly to himself.

  ‘The Trail of Terror has a corridor leading off it,’ Saffy continued. ‘We’ll wait just around the corner. As long as you can outrun them to the end of the corridor, we’ll have you covered.’

  Boris nodded enthusiastically. ‘Yeah, no worries. Right on!’

  ‘So,’ said Saffy, ‘all we need to do now is get some more drool, and … ’

  Suddenly a pair of prefects appeared, completely oblivious to the frozen monsters nearby. ‘ON THE GROUND! NOW!’ yelled one of them, and barrelled Saffy to the floor.

  ‘Wait! I have a cancel card!’ said Saffy.

  ‘Him! It’s him we want,’ said the other prefect, pointing his baton at Jasper.

  ‘Hang on!’ Boris boomed. ‘I have this under control. He’s under prefect arrest.’ He nodded towards Jasper.

  ‘Under arrest? Why isn’t he restrained then?’ asked first prefect, who still had Saffy pinned.

  Boris smiled. ‘Tactics. I was treating them nice until I had backup, just in case they tried something.’ He looked the other prefects up and down. ‘But now that you’re here, I don’t think I need it anyway. These three are a piece of cake. And unless you’d like to take it up with me personally,’ he added with a sneer, ‘you’re not taking any of my prefect points for bringing them in.’

  The prefects were both smaller than Boris. The one on top of Saffy stood up slowly. ‘Yeah, whatever,’ he said. ‘Just because your brother got the most prefect points last year …’ But they backed away and slunk off down the corridor.

  Jasper, Saffy and Felix turned to Boris, whose sneer had turned into a grin.

  ‘Prefect points?’ Felix asked.

  ‘Don’t you know? The more penalty points we give you, the more prefect points we earn. That’s why the prefects are always trying to nab you lot,’ Boris explained.

  Jasper was secretly impressed. Boris hadn’t only disobeyed orders, but he’d lied to the other prefects to save them.

  Saffy beamed. ‘We just might make a monster-hunter out of you after all.’

  14

  The Trail of Terror lay just ahead. Jasper could see the door. He knew that inside, they’d not only find their greatest fears, but possibly also a whole bunch of monsters that wanted to kill him. He took long, deep breaths, psyching himself up to be bait.

  ‘Come on,’ Boris moaned. ‘You’re taking so long!’

  Jasper looked at Felix. ‘I think I liked him better in prefect mode,’ he muttered. ‘And Saffy, the dog drool you put all over me has dried now, so it won’t be any use. But I’m very sticky and stink like a dog. Thanks a lot,’ Jasper finished.

  Saffy had decided to cover Boris and Jasper in dog drool in case the monsters ran them down. ‘Better safe than sorry,’ she said curtly.

  They had collected as many flasks of dog drool as they could carry from the Species Studies classroom. Saffy and Felix had flasks all around them. If Jasper and Boris could make it to the end of the corridor, they’d be fine.

  ‘Remember,’ Felix said, ‘if you can hear the buzzing, then it’s probably too late. You’ll have to tempt the drones out without leaving it for too long. Can you do that?’

  ‘I think so.’ Jasper looked at Boris. He was a bit worried that Boris’s monster side would get the better of him and he’d completely freak out. Jasper at least had some practice in controlling his whispering, but Boris didn’t. There was a good chance his whispering would lead him straight into the path of the monsters. ‘If you hear me say run, then run.’

  Boris smiled. ‘No worries.’

  ‘Break a leg,’ Saffy said, shoving Jasper down the hallway.

  Jasper and Boris jogged down the corridor. They had no idea how close they had to be for the monsters’ antennae to sense them. Jasper hoped the plan worked. Otherwise, they were total goners.

  They stopped at the door to the Trail of Terror. A sign on the door read, ‘Do not enter. Class 2B test.’

  Jasper crouched, ready to run at the slightest sign.

  He closed his eyes and listened. At first there was nothing. But then the whisper started racing through his head. The words were so quick that Jasper couldn’t catch them. Jasper tried to stay calm as they became louder and louder. He pictured a blank piece of paper in his mind and tried to see the words on it.

  KLUUSS ... NAAOOO. KLUUSS ... NAAOOO. NAAOOOO. NAO!

  Close now! Jasper jumped up. ‘RUN!’ he yelled, dragging Boris to his feet. Jasper couldn’t hear any buzzing, but he knew it wouldn’t take long. They raced down the hallway. A bang from behind made Jasper glance over his shoulder. The drones had burst through the door.

  Then Jasper heard the buzzing. Four seconds. They were almost at the end of the corridor. Jasper could feel the wind from the drones’ wings as they sped towards him. He got to the corner and dived around it. Boris flew on top of Jasper, knocking the wind out of him.

  From underneath Boris, Jasper saw the drones freeze mid-flight and collapse on the ground.

  There was muffled cheering and Boris clambered off Jasper, who tried to suck some air into his lungs. If Boris had stayed on top of him for much longer, Jasper was sure he would have suffocated.

  ‘One, two, three, four, five!’ Felix crowed as he counted the frozen drones.

  ‘That was awesome!’ Saffy exclaimed. ‘This dog drool stuff is great. If only all monsters had this as their weakness, Hunts would be a cinch!’

  ‘Easy for you to say,’ Jasper wheezed. ‘You just have to spray ’em.’

  ‘Not quite,’ Saffy replied. ‘That was the easy bit. Now comes the hard part. The Trail of Terror.’

  ‘You should be all right, seeing as you’re the one with all the cancel cards. You mustn’t have screamed at your worst fear,’ Felix pointed out.

  ‘Mmm,’ Saffy said airily.

  ‘So, you’re sure there won’t be any more drones?’ Jasper said.

  Felix shrugged, ‘Yeah, I’m sure. Well, pretty sure. At least, I think so.’

  ‘Great, that makes me feel so much better,’ Jasper mumbled, checking his flask of dog drool. ‘There’s not much left. Do you guys have any?’

  ‘Nah, we've just used most of it,’ said Felix. ‘But don’t worry, the queen doesn’t have a stinger, so she’s harmless.’

  ‘And we’ve got your back,’ said Saffy. ‘You’ll be fine.’

  They walked slowly towards the Trail of Terror. The door was hanging open, and the path inside was dark an
d narrow. It twisted around corners, so it was impossible to know what was around the next bend.

  Felix started shaking beside Jasper, and Saffy’s breathing had become shorter. But there was no choice. They had to find the queen. And she was in there somewhere. She had to be.

  ‘Well, there’s only one way to find out,’ Jasper muttered, and stepped into the room.

  15

  Jasper waited in the darkness. He could hear Saffy, Felix and Boris breathing quietly behind him. The door to the room swung shut with a loud creeeeaaaak.

  ‘Please tell me one of you did that,’ Saffy whispered.

  No-one answered. Jasper knew that the fears of every kid in their class lay inside this room. And a queen Skrinkerscreech with twenty-three eggs, or possibly twenty-three hatchlings feeding on screechwort. Jasper suddenly wondered how long it took the hatchlings to mutate into ferocious, hideous monsters, but he figured it was probably too late to ask Felix.

  Footsteps echoed around them, but they couldn’t see anyone coming. Suddenly, candles ignited overhead, and a flickering light cast spooky shadows on the walls. The footsteps became louder.

  ‘Well, I’m not just gonna stand here waiting,’ Saffy whispered. ‘Come on!’

  The footsteps were really eerie. Jasper didn’t want to see who they belonged to.

  They turned a corner and a huge rat came scurrying along the floor, followed by a horde of mice. Jasper saw Felix squirming, but rodents were something they could all handle. The room could get a lot worse.

  The footsteps had stopped.

  The four kids bunched together, trying not to bump into anything as they walked.

  ‘We need a new plan,’ Felix hissed.

  ‘Isn’t it a bit late to be planning now?’ Jasper replied. ‘I thought the plan was get in, get the eggs, get out. Come on, let’s keep moving.’

  Around the next corner, Jasper felt something prickle at his neck. He stopped and slowly put his hand up to his shoulder. A huge tarantula crawled onto the back of his fingers. Jasper yelped and flung the spider away. He could see more spiders crawling from the walls, scuttling towards him on their hairy, horrible legs, or spinning down from above.