Creeping Terror (9 page)

T
HE BACK OF THE LAND ROVER WAS CRAMPED and uncomfortable. There was a wooden bench seat running along each side. The tarpaulin that covered the top was rolled up at the back, so at least Ben and Rupam could see out as they bumped across the fields.

‘That went well,’ Sam said. She was sitting opposite Ben and Rupam.

‘Don’t start,’ Ben told her.

‘I didn’t say anything,’ Rupam protested.

‘Sorry. I was just thinking – that went well.’

Ben checked his phone. It still wasn’t getting a signal. He stuffed it back in his pocket. His clothes were ripped almost to pieces and he was covered in cuts and scratches. Rupam had fared no better.

‘So what now?’ Sam asked. She looked as immaculate as ever, of course.

‘What do you suggest?’ Ben replied.

Rupam shrugged, still assuming that Ben was talking to him. ‘We have to convince Colonel Greene to help. You met him – what do you think? Will he listen?’

‘No chance,’ Sam said. ‘You might do better to jump out now and hope no one notices.’

‘And hope no one breaks a bone.’ Ben sighed. ‘Sorry,’ he said to Rupam. ‘I was just thinking, we could jump out, but it’s probably not a good idea. You’re right. We need to convince Greene there’s a problem. And no, I don’t think he’ll listen. But we have to try.’

‘He knows that Knight and the others are in Templeton. We just need him to hold off the tanks, or use them to mount a rescue mission.’

‘But if Growl is right, they have to get to the bottom of what’s happening in the village and sort it out. Otherwise those plants and things won’t stop at the village. They could spread everywhere.’

The Land Rover was on a narrow track now. It was still bumpy, but not so bad. Sam had shuffled along to the far end of the bench seat and was looking out of the back of the vehicle. Ben moved along to sit opposite.

‘What if Colonel Greene won’t listen?’ Ben
murmured, just loud enough for Sam to hear. ‘What if he’s infected or whatever as well, and thinks he’s training for the D-Day invasion?’

Sam turned to look at him. She replied at normal volume. ‘Then we need to get away. Contact Mrs Bailey, Madam Sosostram or someone. There’s only so much we can do.’ She turned away again. ‘That
you
can do,’ she corrected herself. ‘I’m useless … worse than useless. Forget I’m here.’

Private Cooper escorted Ben and Rupam to Colonel Greene’s office. Once they were inside the base, there didn’t seem much point trying to escape. Even if they got away, they’d be stuck in the middle of a restricted military area anyway. Besides, Rupam was right – their best option was to try to persuade Colonel Greene to help.

Sam walked with them. She said nothing and Ben guessed she was still sulking at not being able to do anything to help.

‘It’ll be OK,’ he told her. ‘We’ll manage.’

Sam smiled her thanks, but still she said nothing.

‘I know,’ Rupam said, assuming that Ben was talking to him. But he didn’t sound convinced.

The soldier who had come for Ben, Gemma and Knight in the canteen was sitting at his desk
in the room outside Colonel Greene’s office. Ben remembered his name was Jenkins.

‘Are these the children?’ Jenkins asked as Cooper led them in.

‘No,’ Sam said. ‘They’re a completely different couple of kids who wandered in from a restricted village. What do you think?’

Ben stifled a grin.

‘We need to see Colonel Greene,’ Rupam said.

Ben could hear the nerves in his voice.

‘Oh, you’ll see the colonel, all right,’ Jenkins told him. He sent Cooper on his way, then turned to Rupam and Ben. ‘But he isn’t here. You might as well sit down. It could be a while. I doubt you’re his absolute number one priority right now. He’s got an important training exercise just starting.’

‘At Templeton?’

‘That’s the one. We’re going to flatten that place like it never existed.’

‘But you can’t,’ Ben blurted out. ‘It won’t stop what’s happening there. It might just make it worse.’

‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ Jenkins said. He sat down at his desk and started working on his computer. ‘You should have stayed away, like the colonel told you. He warned you not to go into that village, didn’t he?’

Ben looked at Rupam, confused, then back to Jenkins. ‘No, he didn’t. He knows that Mr Knight and the others are in Templeton.’

‘Yeah, nice try.’ Jenkins didn’t look up from his screen.

‘What do you mean?’ Rupam asked.

Jenkins looked over at them, irritated. ‘Colonel Greene made it very clear that no one was to go anywhere near Templeton. He told me what happened in that meeting. And he told me that he sent Mr Knight and his children away with a flea in their ears and orders to keep well away. Because Templeton is going to be razed to the ground, along with anyone in it.’ He pulled his keyboard towards him and started to type. ‘So it’s a good job you got out when you did. And if there is anyone else there, against the colonel’s explicit orders, then I hope you said your goodbyes.’

Ben and Rupam exchanged worried looks, while Sam paced up and down. Rupam had his phone out. He showed Ben that he had no signal.

‘That won’t work,’ Jenkins said, without looking up. ‘No mobiles allowed on the base during an operation. We have a suppressor that blanks out any signal. When it’s turned on, all mobile phones are dead here.’

‘Useless,’ Rupam muttered, and put his phone away.

‘But
we’re
not useless,’ Ben said quietly. ‘We might think there’s nothing we can do, but there is always
something
.’

Sam stopped in front of him, hands on her hips. ‘Oh, yeah? What?’

‘Sure,’ Rupam replied quietly to Ben. ‘The question is – what?’

‘We do what we’re good at. Like remembering things. Or
thinking
.’

Rupam smiled. ‘You’re the thinker, are you? Genius?’

Ben shook his head. He looked straight at Sam. ‘Not me. But that’s what we need right now. A thinker. Someone who can come up with a plan, because you’re right – we’re never going to get Colonel Greene to help.’

‘Hey, keep it down, will you?’ Jenkins called across. ‘Just sit quietly.’

Sam said, ‘You won’t escape easily from here. Not without a massive distraction.’

Ben nodded. That was true.

‘So the only other option is to get a message out. Send for help.’

Ben nodded again. But how?

Sam sighed, as if her next point was obvious. ‘So you have to get him out of the room and use the phone.’

She meant Jenkins, of course. But what would make him leave?

‘How you do it is up to you,’ Sam told Ben. ‘I can’t be expected to think of everything.’

‘I suppose not,’ Ben said out loud.

‘What?’ Rupam said.

Jenkins shot Ben an angry look.

‘I said, I suddenly feel very hot,’ Ben said quickly. It was actually quite cool in the room. ‘I don’t feel good at all,’ he went on. He pulled off his jacket – scratched to bits by the plants and thorns. ‘Oh, that’s not good.’ He slumped forward, head in his hands. ‘Can I get a drink of water? I’ve not eaten or drunk anything for ages.’

Jenkins came over and looked at Ben.

‘He’s looking really pale,’ Rupam said, guessing Ben was up to something.

‘I’m not leaving you to run off,’ Jenkins said. ‘Nice try, but no chance.’

There was something in his tone – a lack of conviction, an uncertainty that gave Ben hope.

‘Please, just some water. Look – lock us in here while you get it if you want. I’ll be all right if I can
just get a drink …’ He let his voice tail off weakly.

‘There’s a water cooler down the hall,’ Jenkins said, straightening up. ‘I’ll be back in one minute, so no funny stuff – right?’

‘Funny stuff?’ Rupam said as soon as Jenkins was gone. ‘Who does he think we are – clowns?’

‘Probably,’ Sam said.

A key turned in the door. Jenkins was obviously taking no chances.

‘That’s that, then,’ Rupam said. ‘Nice try, though.’

‘We’re not trying to escape,’ Ben told him.

‘Then what?’

‘Phone!’

‘He’ll be back in a few seconds. We don’t have time.’

Rupam was right. Ben dragged Jenkins’s heavy desk chair in front of the door and jammed it under the handle.

‘Hey, there’s a key in Greene’s door,’ Rupam said. He had pulled open the door to the inner office. ‘We can lock ourselves in here.’

‘Might buy us a few more minutes,’ Ben agreed, running over.

They locked themselves in and jammed one of the upright chairs under the door handle of this
room too. Sam was nowhere to be seen. Had she stayed in the other office or just disappeared, Ben wondered?

‘So, who do we call?’ Rupam asked.

Ben grabbed the phone. ‘Gibbet Manor.

Someone must be there.’

‘Yes, sir?’ a voice said at the other end of the phone.

Ben froze. It went through a switchboard. He tried to sound gruff and angry, deepening his voice as best he could. ‘Outside line.’

There was a slight pause. Just enough for Ben to know the man on the phone was puzzled. ‘Just dial 9, sir.’

‘Of course.’ Ben hung up. ‘Got to dial 9,’ he told Rupam.

The door rattled in its frame as someone tried to get in.

‘Come on, come on!’ Ben muttered into the phone as he waited.

Mrs Bailey answered on the third ring. Ben blurted out as best he could what was happening, but Jenkins was shouting at them through the locked door now.

‘Greene’s gone mad or something,’ Ben finished. ‘Don’t worry about us, but get Morton to sort it
out, to stop the attack. And we’ll try to warn Knight and the others.’

‘Don’t worry,’ Mrs Bailey assured him. ‘I’m on it. You just look after yourselves. Good luck.’

Ben hardly heard her last words over the sound of splintering wood. The door was breaking as Jenkins forced his way through.

‘Come out of there, you little –’ Jenkins shouted.

But he was interrupted by another voice: ‘All right, Jenkins. You can leave them to me now.’

‘Sir?’

‘Just get out!’ Colonel Greene roared.

Ben and Rupam backed away behind the desk as the door finally crashed open. Colonel Greene stood framed in the broken doorway. He stepped slowly and purposefully into the room.

‘You have to call off the exercise,’ Ben said. ‘There are people in the village. You
know
there are.’

Greene stood the other side of his own desk, staring across at Ben. ‘Oh yes, I do know that,’ he said quietly.

‘Then you’ll call it off?’ Rupam sounded relieved. ‘You’ll send the tanks and soldiers in to help?’

‘I’m afraid not.’

‘But why?’ Ben demanded.

Greene leaned forward. His knuckled pressed
down on the desktop as he stared at Ben. His eyes were deep emeralds. He was so close that Ben could see the veins under his skin – like the veins on a leaf. A clump of hairs bristled up through the top of the colonel’s collar – like a tuft of grass. Green.

Before Ben really understood what he was seeing, Colonel Greene launched himself across the top of the desk at the two boys. The phone, papers, in-tray – all went flying. Rupam leapt one way, Ben the other.

The colonel’s arms were spread wide, grabbing at the two of them, trying to drag them back. Rupam twisted free, but Ben was caught.

‘Run!’ he yelled at Rupam.

Greene’s hand clamped painfully on Ben’s upper arm. He struggled and twisted. With his free arm he beat at the colonel, tore at his uniform jacket. A button came away. Then the jacket ripped open.

Rupam ran back, grabbing at Ben and pulling him away. The two of them fell backwards as Ben broke free. They struggled to their feet to see Greene looming over them.

The colonel’s jacket was hanging open. His shirt was torn across, leaving a flap of material dangling down. The colonel’s chest was bare, his tie was pulled askew.

‘Oh, my God,’ Rupam said.

Because, under the colonel’s shirt, his body was a green mass of twisting tendrils. Creepers and brambles intertwined. Stems and buds trembled with grotesque life. A length of ivy twisted its way up the colonel’s neck. He opened his mouth, yelling at Ben and Rupam, and the sound that came out was a guttural snarl of anger. His mouth was bulging with tiny leaves and shoots. His whole body was a writhing tangle of roots and stems and foliage. Soil trickled down as the colonel advanced on Ben and Rupam.

‘The Green Man,’ Ben gasped in realisation. ‘Colonel Greene is the Green Man.’

R
UPAM SEEMED FROZEN TO THE SPOT, STARING at the grotesque form of Colonel Greene. Ben grabbed his friend’s hand.

‘We have to get out of here!’

Rupam nodded, still unable to look away as Greene started across the room towards them. His hands stretched out. His fingernails were green leaves, tiny spikes growing out like shoots from the tips. Brambles grew up from his back and twisted round his head like a crown of thorns.

Ben dragged Rupam back across the room.

‘What the hell is going on?’ Jenkins pushed through the splintered door. ‘Sir, do you need …’ He stopped, mid-step, staring past Ben and Rupam.

‘Out!’ Ben yelled. ‘Get out!’

Colonel Greene roared with rage. His cheeks trembled. Leaves and branches swayed in the breeze as he rushed at Ben and Rupam.

Jenkins didn’t move. He was right in the path of
the creature bearing down on the boys.

At last, Rupam seemed to switch on. He ran with Ben to the door and they crashed through the shattered remains into the office beyond. Ben risked a quick look back. He wished he hadn’t.

Jenkins had not moved. But now he was engulfed in greenery. Branches encircled him, creepers tightening like snakes round his body. A canopy of leaves fell over his head like a wave, knocking him to the ground. From out of the thrashing mass, two emerald-green eyes stared malevolently back at Ben.

The door to the outer office was hanging on its hinges. As he reached the corridor, Ben could hear the sound of running feet.

‘We have to get out of here,’ he said again. ‘We must get back to the village and warn Knight about the assault in case Morton can’t stop them.’

‘But how?’

Good question, Ben thought. He had no answer. He just ran away from the approaching feet, hoping the corridor led somewhere useful. Anywhere away from Greene and out of the building. He needed fresh air. An open space.

‘The soldiers will see what happened,’ Ben gasped as they ran.

‘They’ll stop Greene. Won’t they?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe. Or maybe he’ll turn back to normal and blame us for killing Jenkins.’

‘Jenkins is dead?’ Rupam evidently hadn’t looked back.

‘I think so. We’re all dead if we don’t get out of here.’

They ran past offices and closed doors until they reached a staircase. It led down to another corridor and a door – an emergency exit. As soon as Ben pushed the bar to open the door, an alarm sounded.

‘Ignore it,’ he shouted above the noise.

They were out of the building, close to where the Land Rover had dropped them off. It was still where Private Cooper had parked it what seemed like hours ago.

‘Take things slowly,’ Rupam said. ‘That way we won’t look so suspicious.’

It was good advice. Soldiers ran past them, heading for the building they had just left. Several of them looked curiously at the two boys walking the other way. If they’d run, Ben was sure they’d have been stopped. But the soldiers had more important things to deal with right now than a couple of kids who looked as if they were behaving themselves and knew where they were going. If they’d been
allowed on to the base, they must have a right to be there.

‘Can you drive?’ Ben asked as they walked towards the Land Rover.

‘Drive? Well, in theory. I know what to do, but I’ve never tried.’

‘Now could be your chance.’

‘You’re kidding.’

In the distance, several other Land Rovers and a covered army truck were heading along the road that led to the main entrance to the base.

‘Could be our only way out,’ Ben said.

‘I am
so
going to regret this,’ Rupam grumbled. ‘Why couldn’t you have brought Maria? She can drive.’

‘She’d complain even more than you. Anyway,’ Ben reminded him, ‘we didn’t have a lot of choice.’

‘It’s probably locked,’ Rupam said when they reached the Land Rover.

It wasn’t.

‘I bet the keys aren’t there,’ Rupam said, getting in.

They were.

‘They’ll stop us at the gate. If we even get that far.’

Ben sighed. ‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, Rupam! Have you got a better idea?’

He hadn’t.

The engine started first time, then stalled as Rupam tried to get the vehicle moving.

‘Sorry,’ he muttered. ‘I can only just reach the pedals.’ He found a lever that shifted the seat forward, then tried again.

This time the Land Rover bumped a few metres across the ground before it stopped.

‘Try not to attract attention,’ Ben said.

‘Oh, I’d never have thought of that,’ Rupam said. ‘Teenage boy driving army Land Rover across a military base. No one will spare us a second thought.’

There was a uniform cap lying on the dashboard in front of Ben. He picked it up and put it on Rupam’s head.

‘Now they’ll think you’re a soldier.’

Rupam gave a nervous laugh. ‘Let’s hope so. A very short soldier.’

Rupam’s driving got better and steadier as they crossed the base. Vehicles were still leaving and he was able to position their Land Rover at the back of the line.

‘Keep your head down,’ Ben suggested. ‘That way they can’t see your face.’

There didn’t seem to be any checks on the convoy leaving the base. All the security was geared towards keeping unauthorised vehicles from
getting
in
rather than out. Ben was sure the guards at the main gate would stop them. How could they fail to hear his heart thumping so loudly? How could they miss the fact that Rupam was a kid in a cap and not an army driver?

But they barely glanced at the Land Rover before lowering the barrier behind them.

‘Now what?’ Rupam said.

‘Follow the rest of them till we get close to Templeton.’

‘I don’t fancy fighting our way back in. Last time was bad enough.’

‘I know,’ Ben agreed. ‘We’ll think of something. And we have to go back. We have to warn Knight and the others about Greene.’

Rupam’s face was a mask of concentration as he drove. ‘You mean warn them that he’s sending the tanks in or that he’s actually the Green Man of ancient legend?’

‘Both, I suppose. How can he be, though?’ Ben said. ‘How can Colonel Greene be the Green Man? What we saw – it’s impossible.’

‘Evidently not,’ Rupam said. ‘Maybe Growl can explain it. A man made of plants and stuff – I agree, it’s … strange.’

‘Have you ever heard of anything like it?’

Rupam shook his head. The cap was too big for him and it started sliding on his head. He pulled it off and tossed it into the back of the vehicle. ‘Have you?’

‘Well,’ Ben said, ‘at the home there was this guy who used to deliver to the kitchens. He brought potatoes and carrots and cabbage – things like that. We called him the Vegetable Man.’

Rupam glanced at Ben before looking back at the road ahead. His mouth curled into a smile. Then he laughed. Ben laughed too. The Land Rover lurched and bumped as they both laughed away some of their tension and fear.

The convoy was moving faster than Rupam was happy to drive. It slowly disappeared into the
distance
, which Ben thought was probably a good thing.

‘We don’t want to end up parked by the tanks and army lorries. We’ll just get caught and hauled back to face Greene.’

‘You really think he’ll get away with it?’ Rupam asked.

‘Either he’s behind all this or he’s somehow been infected and taken over. Whichever it is, if the soldiers can believe it’s 1943, then they can be convinced their commanding officer isn’t a crazy, violent plant monster.’

‘I suppose,’ Rupam agreed.

Ahead of them, the road forked. Ben could see the convoy in the distance on the left.

‘Go right,’ he told Rupam.

‘Will this take us back towards Templeton?’

‘We’ll need to turn left further on, I think.’

They drove for several miles before they found a left turn. The Land Rover bumped along the narrow lane, hedges rising on either side.

‘Do you think we’re safe?’ Ben wondered.

‘Who knows? The closer we get to the village, the more likely we are to run into trouble. Soon we’ll reach the barrier. What do we do then?’

The narrow lane ended at another junction. They turned right on to a wider road, which Rupam recognised as the one they’d taken into the village when they first arrived here with Madam Sosostram.

‘Are you sure?’ Ben asked. The roads all looked pretty much the same to him – fields on one side and a high hedge on the other. ‘No, don’t answer that. Of course you’re sure.’

‘I remember it exactly,’ Rupam said. ‘The roadblock is round the next bend.’

He slowed the Land Rover and they edged cautiously forward. But the army roadblock had gone.

‘Joined the main advance, maybe,’ Ben suggested.

Before long they reached the barrier, which for all the world was like a massive hedge growing across the road. But a hedge that could snare and kill them, Ben knew.

Rupam stopped the Land Rover. ‘What now?’

‘Is it the same as it was before?’ Ben had the beginnings of an idea. ‘Exactly the same?’

‘Well, not exactly. It’s grown, but it doesn’t seem to have moved any further from the village. It looks pretty much the same.’

‘There.’ Ben pointed. ‘That’s where we got through before, isn’t it? Where you hacked a path with the sword?’

‘Yes. You can see where the foliage is a bit thinner. It hasn’t grown back fully.’

‘Then that’s where we aim for,’ Ben decided. ‘The weakest point.’

‘Hang on.’ Rupam was looking worried. ‘What do you mean, “aim for”? We don’t have the sword any more. We’ll never force our way through again.’

‘Not on foot,’ Ben agreed. ‘But we’re in a Land Rover.’

Rupam’s jaw dropped. ‘Oh, come on! You’re not suggesting …’ He looked from Ben to the mass of foliage and back again. ‘Are you? You’re crazy!’

‘We have to get through,’ Ben insisted.

Rupam shook his head. ‘I must be crazy too,’ he decided. ‘Make sure your seat belt’s on and hold tight.’

The engine roared and the Land Rover gathered speed as it hurtled towards the wall of green. It smashed into the foliage at the exact point where Ben and Rupam had forced their way through before.

The windscreen was suddenly dark – plastered with leaves. Branches slashed at the side windows and scraped along the paintwork. The whole vehicle shook. Rupam kept his foot hard down on the accelerator.

The wheels bounced over roots and creepers. The whole vehicle lifted in the air as it hit a large obstacle. The bonnet slammed down. Metal screeched and protested. The windscreen shattered, showering Ben and Rupam in broken glass.

They were slowing. A fist of ivy and bramble punched in through the window beside Ben, ripping the seat covering. It was whipped away as the vehicle kept going. But they were losing speed. The Land Rover slewed sideways as a tyre burst. Ben could hear rubber flapping against metal.

Ahead, he thought he could see the merest hint of daylight. The vehicle shuddered and slowed. It then
tilted, skidded back the other way and stopped. The bonnet was once more facing forward. Behind them, Ben could dimly see a trail of broken branches and scattered leaves. In front of them, the leaves closed in, rustling in what sounded like anticipation.

Rupam thumped at the steering wheel, cursing under his breath. The engine was protesting and the vehicle rocked as Rupam tried to get it moving again – and failed.

They were trapped inside the Land Rover, so close to the end of the barrier of greenery that Ben thought he could see the outline of the road beyond. Branches pressed in from the sides. The green wall in front reared up, gathering itself ready to pour through the broken windscreen and tear the two boys to pieces.