Violet darted behind a group of tightly packed trees. Boy dived in beside her. His face and hands were scratched raw too.
“What happened?” he wheezed.
She was about to speak when three large figures passed through the trees a little way away.
The two zombies Violet had seen earlier grumbled as they headed towards the net. They were leading a third figure – a tall woman, dressed in a stiff navy cloak tied high at the neck over a starched white blouse.
“Nurse Powick!” Boy gasped.
“It’s empty!” Nurse Powick cried, frustrated, as she hit the frayed net with a large stick. “The alarm sounded, so there must have been something in the trap. You’re meant to be keeping watch! Why didn’t I check the monitors before coming out here? As if I’m not busy enough right now! The sooner you things can think for yourselves the better!”
The zombies groaned, looking up at the net.
“Useless mush-for-brains!” she snarled, examining the rope further. “Seems it was cut. Who’s been sneaking around? We don’t need trouble. Not now. There’s only a few days left. He’s worked too hard for this!”
The nurse walloped the net again. Violet crouched down further into the mossy earth, while Boy gripped the sides of a tree in front of him, peering round it.
“Nevertheless, they can’t have gone far. Search the area!” Powick ordered. “I’ll check your screens at home. Where’s Tom? Isn’t he meant to be in charge of you idiots? Do I have to do all of this ungodly work myself?”
Sour-faced, she pushed past the zombies and disappeared back into the forest in the opposite direction to the Outskirts.
Her creatures didn’t move.
“Search now!” she screamed, her sharp voice shattering the quiet of the forest.
The zombies groaned again then both stomped off the path, ripping through the gorse as though oblivious to its thorny fingers. Boy snuck quietly backwards then turned and crept away, beckoning Violet to follow him.
“What are we doing?” she hissed once they were a safe distance from the creatures.
“Getting away from them,” Boy whispered, climbing under a fallen tree trunk.
“But we need a plan! What is Powick doing here? She said something about him working too hard for this and there only being a few days left. That note on my bike was right – something is up. I bet Town really is in trouble!”
“She said she’s going to check the screens, Violet.” Boy stopped and stared straight at her. “The zombie’s eyes are the eye plants, remember? She’ll see you in the net. She’ll come looking for us. We have to get out of here.”
“Well then, we have to go home. Tell Dad and William and the others…”
“Exactly!”
“Then why are we going this way? The Outskirts is behind us.”
“Because I’m trying to sneak past the zombies, Violet. If we go wide enough, we should be able to circle round them!”
“Okay.” She nodded uncertainly.
The forest was dense. Every tree looked the same and Violet couldn’t make out what direction they were heading in. Her gut told her to stop but she followed behind her friend – he was usually better than her at these things.
As the pair travelled in silence, the thick foliage dampened sounds until all they heard was the cracking of twigs in the undergrowth and each other’s breath.
Everything grew darker. Violet lost track of time, unsure if the sun was dropping in the sky or if the forest had thickened even further. Her heart pounded. Surely they were lost? It couldn’t take this long to get back to the Outskirts?
“We’ve been here before,” she whispered as she climbed over a thick tree trunk. “I’m sure we have, Boy! This is the third time I’ve done this.”
“Maybe it just looks the same – all trees are alike!” Boy said, picking up a stick. He scraped his initials into the mossy bark. “If we pass here again, we’ll know for definite.”
She nodded and continued onwards. Boy seemed wary now too. Violet gulped a while later as they stopped in front of the initialled tree.
“We’re going in circles!” she stuttered.
Boy looked around as though trying to make some sense of it all. The trees loomed large above them.
Suddenly he ran forward, disappearing around a corner ahead. Violet felt nervous – she was about to follow when her friend raced back towards her, his face etched in frustration.
“I know it sounds crazy, but I think we’re in a maze,” Boy panted, stopping short. “It’s definitely not a normal forest – the trees are growing in lines. They’re not normal trees either, not like the ones you usually see.”
Violet looked at the tree beside her. Boy was right. The trunk was short but the greenery was tall, full and pointy at the top like a rocket. She’d seen pictures of ones just like it in her nature book at school. The trees were packed so tightly to their neighbours that together they created a dense wall of foliage either side of a narrow walkway.
“You’re right,” she said, looking around. “It’s like we’re standing in a passage.”
The pair inched forward and round the next corner – it was the same there – another narrow walkway lined with foliage. In their panic to get far away from the zombies, Violet hadn’t noticed this before.
“I was in a maze once,” Violet remembered, steadying her racing thoughts, “when I was younger. I was scared ’cause I couldn’t get out. Dad was with me. He said to touch the hedge with my fingers and keep walking, and never remove my hand from the hedge. It worked, we eventually got out!”
“That doesn’t sound right. It can’t be that easy to escape a maze, Violet!”
“Well it was, Boy, it worked!” she argued.
Her friend stepped back. “Since you’re the maze expert then, lead us out.” He gestured, not sounding convinced.
Violet stepped over to the line of trees on her left, reaching her hand until she touched its pine-scented greenery. Then she began walking.
“Mam and Dad will be worried,” she whispered. “We’ve been gone ages now!”
“And whose fault is that?”
“Boy!” Violet snapped. “You can’t blame me for—”
Suddenly her friend pulled her into the trees so fast she almost swallowed a mouthful of prickly pine needles.
“What are you—?”
He shoved a hand over her mouth and pointed. On the corner ahead, hidden beside the base of a trunk, was a small clear-petalled plant, its eyeball centre scanning the area.
“Why would there be an eye plant out here?” Violet shuddered.
“I don’t know,” he whispered, not looking away from the creature, “but we have to sneak past. When its head moves left again, run.”
The eye scanned slowly across the forest floor. Violet’s heart pounded.
“Now,” Boy said, tapping her shoulder.
He sprang up and sprinted round the corner, skidding into hiding by the base of another tree. Violet dived in beside him, her head almost colliding with the thick trunk.
“We have to be more careful,” her friend whispered, “there might be more of them – they’re well hidden. If I hadn’t caught its movement, I wouldn’t have spotted that one!”
“Boy, we’re lost. I’m worried,” Violet said, a little overwhelmed.
“I know.” He sounded anxious too.
“But what is all this? First the trap, then the zombies, Powick, the maze and the eye plants! What’s going on?” She quivered.
“Let’s just try to get home, Violet! We can think about all that later, after we tell our parents.”
He pulled her up from their hiding spot. The pair continued forward, slower now as they checked round every corner for an eye plant. With each step Violet grew more nervous. They’d been walking ages and seemed no closer to home. Her tummy grumbled, but she was too scared to think about food.
The air grew cooler; it seemed like late evening. Violet shivered with the rising cold but didn’t once remove h
er hand from the line of trees. They turned another corner and suddenly her fingers slipped into thin air.
“We’ve done it!” she almost shouted with relief as she turned to hug her friend. “We’ve escaped the maze, Boy!”
He didn’t seem as excited and, confused, she swung back around, fully expecting to see the Outskirts in the distance, but they were standing at the edge of a vast empty field.
“Where…where are we?” she whispered.
“There’s nothing here, it’s just an empty field.” Violet stepped further into the open.
They were standing at the edge of a huge circular meadow wrapped on all sides by thick forest. The sky had grown a little darker as though preparing for the night.
“I thought we’d be back at the start of the forest. I thought we’d be able to get home after we got out of the maze, Boy!” Panic gripped her throat. “Where are we, what is this place?”
“I don’t know.” Boy walked a little out from the trees. “But wherever we are, I think we’re not meant to be here. I bet the trap, the maze, the eye plants, all of it was designed to keep people away.”
“But away from what? A big empty field…? That doesn’t make sense!”
Boy began to walk the edges, stopping regularly to peer into the forest. Violet sat down by the base of a tree, exhausted, hungry and confused. A thick lump formed in her throat.
She raised her knees and wrapped her arms round them, suddenly aware again of the cold. Now that she’d stopped, the air felt frigid and the sweat that dampened the back of her shirt made her shiver.
Across the expanse of grass, Boy was still walking the perimeter. She wasn’t sure what he was hoping to find. She was continuing to follow his progress when movement caught her attention in the middle of the field. Violet sat forward and stared. There was nothing there.
She rubbed her eyes and checked again. Still the place was empty. Was she so tired, hungry and lost that she was seeing things now? She was forever being told she’d a vivid imagination. Still uneasy, Violet shuffled back further under cover of the trees.
Then something moved again, in the same place as before. At first a foot hovered in mid-air, followed quickly by an arm, until eventually a figure appeared in the middle of the field.
What was going on? This person seemed to have come from nowhere. But that was impossible. Maybe she was just overtired. She rubbed her eyes again – the figure was still there, standing still, as though waiting for something. At this distance and in the fading evening light she could just make out small details: a crooked leg, torn grey T-shirt and a missing hand. She quivered. It was a zombie but a different one to earlier.
Boy was over to her right now, having nearly finished his round. He seemed oblivious to this creature’s existence. She needed to warn him somehow and was racking her brain for some way to do it, when the thing disappeared again. Like magic.
Violet was speechless when Boy reached her side.
“The field’s empty.” He shuffled down beside her. “And there’s no other entrance into the maze except the one we came through. It’s really weird, there’s nothing here!”
Violet still stared ahead, trying to make sense of what she’d seen.
“Is everything all right?” he asked, glancing over at her. “You’re acting weird. I don’t think I’ve ever been able to speak for that long without you interrupting me.”
“There was a zombie there,” she stuttered, pointing forward. “They just appeared from nowhere and then disappeared again!” It sounded mad, even as she said it.
“What do you mean? Where?” he asked, squinting across the grass.
“In the middle of the field. It was like magic!”
“Magic?” he snorted. “There’s no such thing!”
“I’m not crazy!”
“People don’t just appear and disappear, Violet!”
“I know they don’t usually but they did this time. Just there.” She pointed again.
“Maybe it’s your eyes. It’s getting dark. Dad says our eyes play tricks on us at night. That’s why some people think they see ghosts.”
“I didn’t say it was a ghost, I said it was a zombie!” she replied sharply. “And it’s not night yet!”
Boy suddenly sat forward. “Look! In the middle of the field,” he hissed, pointing.
The zombie was standing in the same spot as before. It now carried a flaming torch, casting a ghostly yellow light across the field.
“I told you,” Violet whispered as another zombie appeared behind the first.
They were followed quickly by two more figures, each carrying a torch. A strong yellow glow now filled the centre of the field. The group then set off, moving rapidly towards Violet and Boy.
The pair scurried back to the cover of the trees and curled into the undergrowth.
Violet held her breath and gripped her friend’s hand.
As the zombies got closer she could clearly make out the limping step and imposing frame of Hugo, the Child Snatcher, one of Powick’s original zombies. He was leading two more of the nurse’s creatures, and behind them was a smaller figure, slight-framed and pale-skinned – he was like Boy in every way except for his cold ice-blue eyes.
“Tom!” Violet whispered.
The foursome passed dangerously near to Violet and Boy as they entered the maze. The zombies stared straight ahead, their mouths set in a permanent drooling grimace. A low growl slipped out from the lips of the grey T-shirted one with each pounding step. Tom looked tense. His eyes darted after every sound. He was dressed all in black, just like his brother.
“Tom’s with those zombies – and you think he’s good!” Boy whispered as the flaming torches disappeared into the distance.
“But…” Violet was breathless. “Why would he warn me about Town if he wasn’t?”
Boy shook his head. “You don’t know the note was from him. Anyway, we can’t worry about that now. Those zombies were different to the ones in the forest earlier. How many more zombies do you think Powick has made?”
“I don’t know” – Violet was shaking now – “and where are they coming from, Boy? They just appeared out of nowhere.”
She climbed unsteadily to her feet and walked into the field. Boy passed her, jogging towards the middle of the open space. He was at the spot where the figures appeared when he fell suddenly backwards, landing with a dull thud on the grass.
Violet rushed forward.
“Are you okay…? What happened?”
“I…I walked into something,” he groaned, rubbing his head before pushing up onto his elbows. “But there’s…there’s nothing there.”
Violet looked round. Just as before, the field was completely empty.
A shiver ran down her spine and the hair on her arms shot up. She stood, put her hands out and crept forward. Almost immediately, the tips of her fingers hit a solid object.
There was definitely something right in front of her – she could feel it, but she couldn’t see it. She fanned her hands out and placed her palms on it. The thing was big, solid and felt weirdly like the material in one of her mam’s old dresses. Her heart pounded.
Then Boy was at her side. He held his arms out and moved them around the invisible object. He looked like one of those men with white faces and black clothes who she’d seen once in a circus.
“Can you feel that too?” he whispered.
Violet nodded. She placed her right hand on the thing and walked left, just as she’d done in the maze. She’d paced a good distance from Boy when her fingers slipped off into thin air.
She put her hand back on the invisible object and gently felt round to see if a corner existed. It did. She followed it and walked along again until her fingers slipped off once more. She turned another corner and continued to trace what she realized now was a large square shape. Weirdly, on every step of her journey round she could still see Boy. It was as though nothing existed between him and her but a field of grass, though Violet’s sense of touch said othe
rwise.
She had just returned to her friend’s side when something clicked nearby. Oddly it sounded like a lock. The pair were ready to sprint away when suddenly a dark-cloaked figure stepped out from the invisible structure just metres from them. They froze, statue still, afraid even a twitch would alert the person to their presence.
Priscilla Powick stood square-shouldered and stern on the grass, a large flaming torch in her solid grip. She fiddled with the high collar of her long navy cloak before striding across the field into the maze.
Boy raced to where the woman had appeared and began to feel around in the air.
“Got it!” he said, cupping an invisible object in his palm. There was the same click as a moment before and Boy strained, pulling back on something.
“Quickly, Violet, come here!” he hissed. “It’s a door!”
She raced round him, then stopped, suddenly disorientated. In front of her, hovering in the middle of the field, was what looked like a cobbled path and part of a distant stone wall. She hesitated.
“Step through!” he insisted. “Quickly, we need to find out what’s going on!”
Boy, who had at first been the hesitant one, had suddenly changed his tune.
Violet stepped through the invisible doorway onto a cobblestone path which cut through grass on either side and Boy followed. Her mind spun as she tried to make sense of her new surroundings: behind her was the empty field and now straight in front of her, at the end of the path, was a huge arched wooden door set into the wall of a gigantic stone castle.
The castle was like something from a faerie tale. Its high walls connected four large towers, forming a square shape. Violet imagined a courtyard rested inside. The towers were topped with teeth-like battlements.
How could something this large be hidden right in the middle of an open field?
“Do you think it’s some sort of magic?” Violet whispered, breaking their shocked silence.
Boy shook his head. “Magic doesn’t exist, it has to be science of some sort,” he replied, turning to look back the way they’d come.
He gasped and stumbled sideways, knocking against her.
The Battle for Perfect Page 6
