The Fire Bay Adventure

by Fleur Hitchcock

  “Sorry,” she said. “Like I did it on purpose.”

  They sat in silence, bouncing and shaking, until Ava crept to look out of the tiny square window at the back.

  “Just passing Clifftoppers,” she said.

  She stayed staring out of the window as the countryside sped by. What had they done? They might never get back home again. This was a grade-one disaster.

  “What’s this?” asked Josh behind her.

  “What?” She scrambled back. Josh held out a piece of paper.

  Ava examined it. “It’s a bill from a printer.” She held it up to the light and read. “Two hundred stick-on labels, two hundred box labels. Proofed as below.”

  “What does that mean?” asked Josh, sliding back and forth across the van.

  “I’m looking at the ‘proof below’ – and it says ‘Xarca’.”

  “Let’s see,” said Josh, examining the paper. “That’s a dead copy of the Xarca logo. So they’ve been sticking labels on boxes? Why would you do that?”

  “Let’s see.” Ava picked up one of the mobile-phone boxes and slipped her fingernail under the corner of the label. She peered underneath. “Just an address – definitely not England. Nothing to do with Xarca.”

  “So they’re not real. The phones.”

  Ava shook her head. “No. But they’re pretending they are – whoa!” The van suddenly halted and Ava fell, sprawled across the back of the van.

  “Quick, hide,” said Josh, throwing cardboard cartons over his head until he more or less disappeared.

  “There’s nothing to hide under!”

  Josh chucked over a large flattened cardboard box and she tunnelled beneath it, holding her breath and trying to keep still.

  The engine stopped, and then Ava heard the click of the driver’s door opening followed by the crunch of gravel. Where are we? she thought to herself. A layby somewhere?

  And then voices.

  “How long you been waiting?” said Frogwoman.

  “Not too bad. I walked over from the bus stop. Be glad to stop lugging this lot around though.” A man’s voice.

  Ava felt the vibration as the door by her foot opened. She held her breath, but all that happened was that someone put something heavy on her leg. She stayed still, waiting for the door to close, but it didn’t.

  “I thought you’d be longer. Why’d you leave so soon?” asked the man.

  “Kids – I think they twigged. One of them went off to get a policewoman. I was lucky not to get caught.”

  “That’s all we need. I packed up sharpish this morning but we might need to move on soon. After we’ve secured the next delivery.”

  “Delivery?” mouthed Josh.

  “When’s the next lot due in?”

  “Another hundred and fifty this afternoon,” said the man. “We’re going to have to get rid of them quick.”

  “Where are they coming to?”

  “More,” whispered Josh. “There are going to be more?”

  “Shh, idiot,” said Ava, frantically listening, but she’d missed it. Then the door slammed, and the feet crunched round the side of the van, and although the voices rumbled, Ava couldn’t hear what they said.

  “Are we off again?” whispered Josh, sitting up and spraying cardboard boxes all over the van.

  “Shh,” said Ava.

  There was the sound of gears crunching, then the gravel and the van lurched off.

  “Josh! You talked right over the most important bit,” hissed Ava.

  “Sorreeeee,” he said. “But that was almost one hundred per cent definitely Mushroom-head – the man who was selling the VR headsets in the market.”

  “You sure?” Ava looked down at the box on her legs. Josh looked too. “Wonder what’s in here.”

  “Bet it’s the headsets. But it’s got tape on it,” he said. “You can’t open it.”

  “So we’re going to have to take it off carefully,” she said, peeling up a corner and pulling the long strip from the top.

  She’d just managed to remove the main piece of tape and open one flap when the van slowed, halted, and the driver’s door slammed.

  Feet crunched on the gravel and the handle of the back door went down.

  “Right,” said a voice outside. “Let’s label this lot.”

  Chloe and Aiden agreed to lie. Telling their grandparents that Ava and Josh were in the back of a small white van speeding across the countryside seemed like a bad idea.

  “They ran after Bella,” said Chloe.

  “But she’s right here,” said Grandma, pointing at Bella who, worn out after all the excitement, had gone to sleep in the middle of the high street.

  “Yeah, but she wasn’t just now. Er…” Chloe looked at Aiden.

  “They rushed to search for that cat between the boat sheds,” said Aiden. “I think. I didn’t really see where they went.”

  Grandma had given them a hard stare and gone off to buy some carrots.

  “How do we find out if the people in the post office had one of those headsets?” said Aiden. “Should we go down to the hotel to look for them?”

  “What? While the others are missing?” said Chloe. “I think we need to tell someone – I mean, they might have gone miles.” She felt more and more uncomfortable about lying.

  “You’re right, but it might be safer to tell Grandpa,” said Aiden. “Grandma’ll go ballistic.”

  “Hmm,” said Chloe. “He’s back at the farm – it’ll take ten minutes to get there.”

  “OK. And we might find the post-office people on the way.”

  They started walking back to Clifftoppers. As they neared the church, Bella’s nose twitched. She let out a low growl and leaped sideways. Neither of them was fast enough to grab her as she shot through the lychgate and into the churchyard.

  “Hey!” shouted Aiden, but Bella wasn’t listening. Her ears were flat against her head as she sped across the grass and shoved at the heavy church door.

  “Bella!” Chloe raced through the lychgate and made it to the door just as Bella disappeared through it.

  “It’s Mr Tibbs!” said Aiden, pushing the door open and entering the cool of the church. Chloe looked round and saw the black cat balanced on the back of the pulpit, his back arched, hissing at Bella, who was unashamedly barking.

  “Shh, Bella,” said Chloe.

  But Bella wasn’t listening. The cat wasn’t listening either. His eyes were focused on the dog, and the two of them looked ready to scrap.

  “I’ll take the dog,” said Aiden, “if you can get the cat.”

  “Oh. Thanks,” said Chloe, looking at the outstretched claws, the tiny pointy teeth and the cat’s wide-eyed stare. “Thanks a lot.” She leaned towards the cat, who turned towards her and gave her the same hiss that she’d given the dog.

  “Shh, Bella.” Aiden tried pulling the dog away from the side of the wooden pulpit. Bella let out a noise somewhere between a snarl and a sneeze and made a lunge towards Mr Tibbs. “It’s just a cat,” said Aiden, grasping her collar and dragging her across the floor. “You’ve seen plenty of cats before.”

  He pulled, Bella growled, and the cat hissed.

  “Can you get hold of it?” asked Aiden.

  The cat reminded Chloe of the sea urchins she’d seen on a holiday to Greece. Spiky, dangerous and impossible to pick up. “I’ll try,” she said, swallowing. She pulled the sleeves of her sweatshirt down so that they covered her hands. “Here puss-cat, come here. It’s OK, that bad nasty dog isn’t going to do you any harm.”

  The cat didn’t seem to understand and opened its mouth to let out a silent hiss.

  “Come on, it’s fine,” she said, more to herself than the cat. She climbed the wooden steps to the pulpit and reached out towards Mr Tibbs, but the cat wasn’t interested. He turned his green eyes on her, leaped past her arms and landed on top of a carved angel that projected from the wall. He took a brief look at Chloe’s outstretched hand and jumped into an alcove above the angel’s head, hissing one l
ast time before disappearing.

  “Now what?” she said. “I can’t reach. And even if I could, I don’t want to stick my hand in a dark hole with a strange cat with teeth in it. And I’m not very good at cats.”

  “OK,” said Aiden, biting his lip. “I’ll try.”

  It took them a moment to swap. Chloe tucked her fingers round Bella’s collar and hauled her back towards the doorway. “Come on, you stupid creature.” Bella was heavy and hard work, but at least she didn’t have small pointy teeth or sharp claws, and she’d never bite.

  From the top of the pulpit steps, Aiden looked back down at Chloe. “I don’t know if I’m going to be any better than you. I can’t really see him. All I can see is a dark bit, which might be him.”

  “Try reaching your hand in?” said Chloe. “Maybe you can hook him under his stomach.”

  She held her breath as he put his hand into the dark slot that Mr Tibbs was currently inhabiting at the back of the alcove. She felt a little mean making Aiden tangle with Mr Tibbs, but he was older, and taller.

  “Hey, well done. I knew you’d be better than me,” said Chloe. “He didn’t go for you! Now see if you can get him.”

  Aiden reached further in. For a second his arm stayed put and then he jerked it back. “Ow! Stupid cat, I’m trying to help.” He looked at his hand. Two white stripes showed where Mr Tibbs’s claws had struck.

  “You might have to put something over your arms?” suggested Chloe, and then immediately wished she hadn’t as Aiden glared at her, rubbing his wrist. “Sorry,” she said, struggling with Bella, who had suddenly developed an interest in a plastic lunch box that might or might not contain biscuits. “I was just trying to help.”

  Aiden pulled his jacket off and put it on back to front, so that it covered his chest and the sleeves covered his hands. Then he put his left arm up to the hole, and gently pushed into the dark.

  Mr Tibbs chose that moment to leap, passing Aiden and heading straight for Chloe, who let go of Bella to catch him. Bella yelped and vanished under a pew as the wooden side of the pulpit swung open and a dark, spidery, human-sized void appeared.

  “Whoa!” Chloe gripped Mr Tibbs, holding the cat under its armpits so that the flailing claws and needle teeth couldn’t reach her. “What is that?”

  Aiden ran down the pulpit steps and for a second all four of them were frozen, gazing into the black entrance of something that went off down a dusty staircase into the darkness.

  “What shall we do with the cat?” said Aiden at the same time as Chloe said, “Have you got any battery on your phone?”

  At the back of the church in the children’s section they found a hamper full of dressing-up clothes. With Aiden holding Bella back with his leg and Chloe thrusting her arms deep into the princess costumes, they managed to stow Mr Tibbs and shut the lid. He let out some plaintive mews but then he went quiet and Chloe heard that funny stamping that cats do, followed by purring.

  “Think he’s OK,” she said, and joined Aiden by the pulpit as he gazed into the black hole.

  “Have you—?”

  “Shh!” He held up his finger. “Listen. What can you hear?”

  Chloe listened. “Voices?” she said. “I can hear voices. And seagulls?” she asked. “Is that really what we can hear?”

  “And the sea?” asked Aiden, a smile creeping across his face. “Waves.”

  As Chloe watched, the cobwebs drifted in and out, and she realised that the hole didn’t smell of damp cupboards. It smelled of the beach and the sea and seaweed.

  “Ready?” asked Aiden.

  Gripping Bella by the collar, Chloe took a deep breath and said, “I’m ready!”

  When the door of the van opened, Josh seized his chance and leaped. Imagining that everything behind him was out to get him, he ran through what turned out to be the forecourt of a petrol station, past Mushroom-head and Frogwoman, straight past an elderly man fiddling with his windscreen wipers, past the kiosk where a woman sat doing the crossword and on to the moor behind.

  “Wait! Josh!” he heard Ava behind him, but he wasn’t going to wait, and he ploughed on, dodging rabbit holes and ducking between gorse bushes until the fear that was sitting on the back of his neck subsided and he felt able to stop and breathe.

  “Hey!” shouted a voice in the distance. Mushroom-head?

  “After them!” came another voice. Frogwoman?

  He heard car doors slam, but no engine start, and he paused to listen. Ava came crashing in behind him, breathing heavily. “We’ve gotta get out of here,” she said. “They’re following.”

  And they were. Behind them the bushes were moving – or, rather, someone was moving in the bushes.

  “We could stay here,” whispered Josh, looking around at the scrub. It was thick. Probably almost thick enough.

  “Too close,” said Ava, beginning to weave through the gorse at a steady trot.

  “Wait for me,” said Josh, but his sister obviously had no intention of waiting. So, calling her names under his breath, Josh jogged behind, heading steadily uphill to a tall pile of rocks balanced on another pile of rocks. Ava increased her speed and he lost sight of her. He’d catch her in a minute.

  The landscape looked unfamiliar and as Josh ran, trying to get as far as possible from their pursuers, he had a growing sense of getting lost. He turned as he ran and realised he couldn’t actually even see the petrol station any more. He couldn’t see the road. He couldn’t see the sun. He couldn’t even see his sister.

  “Ava!” he called, taking a moment to lean over and suck some air into his lungs. “Ava?”

  There was no answer, so he jogged on towards the piles of stones, and then looked back. In the distance he could see cars going along a road. It might have been the road they’d been on. But then again, it might not.

  “Ava!” he shouted. “Where are you?”

  Still no answer.

  “Ava! You utter toilet! You complete drainpipe! Where are you?”

  Nothing. He scoured the moorland. Bushes, grass, bushes. Sheep. Sheep and mist. Josh didn’t like mist. Ghosts hung around in mist. Didn’t they?

  “Ava! You’re a rotten fish. A squished banana – I’ll never lend you anything ever again.”

  His voice bounced back from the stones. But there was no sign of Ava.

  He’d been so sure she was ahead of him.

  “AVA! You can’t borrow any of my stuff again. Ever. And I won’t give you my pizza crusts. You’re a toad, a frog, a tadpole, a … a slimy thing that lives at the bottom of a pond.” He paused for breath. “Where are you?!”

  “Here!” said a voice behind him, and a hand fell on his shoulder.

  “Aaargh!” he screamed and jumped. “I thought you were a – a…” He didn’t dare say ghost.

  “Not much good at running away quietly are you?” she said. “And, for your information, I am not a toilet.”

  Josh nearly said, “It’s good to see you,” but stopped himself just in time. One thing he would never admit to Ava was being worried about her, another was being scared.

  “So where are we?” he asked. “And how are we going to get home?”

  The mist turned to rain. Fine wet rain that closed in across the moor and made it difficult to see very far. Despite the rain, Ava was sure she knew which way to go, but she knew Josh wouldn’t believe her. He really was the most annoying person in the world.

  “That,” she said, pointing across the moor, “is south. South must be where we came from. Drake’s Bay is south.”

  Josh peered into the rain. “How d’you know that’s south?”

  “Because it is,” she replied.

  “With what? Your super-accurate internal compass? The one that got us lost at the shopping centre last Christmas and couldn’t find its way to the car park?” said Josh. “Cos if we’re using that particular piece of equipment, it’s pretty rubbish.”

  Ava felt her face go hot at the memory. “For your information, that was because we were on the wrong floo
r.”

  “And we were on the wrong floor because?”

  “Oh, shut up, Josh.” Ava turned away from him and scanned the landscape. He was right, she had no real idea where south was. She just felt that it was south. It looked as if it was the right direction. If only the sun would come out, it would all be so much easier.

  But the sun stayed firmly behind the clouds and the rain came down and her sweatshirt got soaked in seconds, and then she was quite cold.

  She took a deep breath. “What’s your idea, then?”

  “The petrol station and the road are up there,” said Josh, pointing in the opposite direction. “So we should go that way.”

  “OK,” she said. “And the people we just ran from? What if they’re still there? What if they’re waiting for us there?”

  Josh sighed. “But it’s just miles of nothing your way. Look!”

  Ava looked where he was looking. It was miles of nothing. She felt all her energy flood out and she sat down, her back to the stones, wishing they’d brought something with them. Food, money, a map, a compass. She looked at her phone, at the GPS. There was a helpful dot in the middle of a blank screen.

  “There’s nothing here,” said Josh.

  As she stared over the lumps and bumps and bushes, the wind blew the rain to the side and through the gap in the curtain she saw something moving.

  “Over there.” She pointed. “Is that a car?”

  Josh looked where she was pointing, screwing up his face and peering exaggeratedly into the distance. She knew he could see it. She knew he was trying to decide whether it was worth pretending that he couldn’t in order to string this out. She watched the battle on his face. In the end, sense won.

  “Yes. A red car. Then a blue one.”

  “A road?” said Ava, wishing she could windscreen-wipe the sky and see a little clearer. “Oh yes – and look! A bus!”

  “I’ll beat you there!” shouted Josh and he leaped from the pile of rocks, missed his footing, and fell head first into some sheep poo.

  The steps turned out to be a spiral staircase, one that hadn’t been used for a very long time. In the light of Aiden’s phone torch the cobwebs appeared as a white wall in front of them, so it wasn’t until they’d walked quite a few paces that he realised it was a spiral staircase. It was so narrow that his elbows touched the sides, and so low that his head brushed the roof. It was also cold, super cold, down here under the church. None of this was nice and he imagined the millions of spiders that he must be picking up on the way.