Night on Terror Island (16 page)

‘That was … nuts,’ said Tamara. ‘I couldn’t stop myself … from moving that way.’ She looked down at Rose. ‘Are you OK, honey?’

Rose nodded. But she didn’t feel OK. She felt weird.

‘I want to go home,’ she said. She thought if she said it often enough, it might just happen.

‘Well, whatever it was, it’s stopped now,’ said Jade.

‘No kidding,’ said Tad. ‘Gee, I’m glad you’re with us, Jade. Without your lightning-fast observations, we wouldn’t know what’s happening.’

Jade gave him a cold look.

‘Tad, maybe if you stopped wisecracking all the time, we might be able to figure out what’s
happening
here.’ She looked around at the others. ‘Where’s Sam?’ she asked.

Everyone reacted in total dismay. They had all thought the first mate was with them, but there was no sign of him.

‘He was right behind me when we ran out of that room,’ said Tad. ‘The one where we heard the noises. The one where we saw something moving in the shadows. The one where the kid screamed.’

‘You left him behind?’ growled Captain Holder.

‘I didn’t
leave him
,’ protested Tad. ‘I mean, not on purpose. Like I said, he was right behind me. At least, I
thought
he was.’

There was a puzzled silence.

‘I guess the Number Tails got him,’ said Rose.

Everyone stared at her.

‘What are you talking about?’ snapped Captain Holder.

‘That’s how it works in movies,’ explained Rose. ‘If Kip was here, he’d be able to tell it better. He says it’s one of the rules in scary films. The person with the smallest part always gets the chop first. And Sam hardly ever spoke. It makes sense he’d be first to go.’

‘Stop talking like that,’ snapped Captain Holder. ‘Sam’s my best friend.’

‘You didn’t say that when he sank your boat,’ said Rose.

‘Maybe not,’ admitted Captain Holder, sheepishly. ‘But he’s worked for me for a long time. I’m going down to look for him. Who’s coming with me?’

There was an uncomfortable silence. Nobody seemed to be able to look him in the eye.

‘OK,’ he said. ‘If that’s how you feel …’ He started towards the stairs but stopped at the sound of a series of footsteps pounding in through the front entrance below. ‘What the hell is that?’ he whispered.

‘It’ll be the Number Tails,’ Rose told him again. ‘Come on, we need to hide.’

‘But, what about Sam?’

‘He’ll be brown bread by now,’ said Rose. ‘That’s what Kip always says. I think it means “dead”. Him and Beth have this game where they watch a movie and they try to guess which order everybody gets to be brown-breaded. They’re hardly ever wrong.’

‘Who’s Kip?’ asked Tad irritably.

‘My brother, and he’s seen more scary films than anyone in the world,’ said Rose. ‘I wish he was here now, he’d know what to do.’

‘You’re a real little ray of sunshine,’ said Tad. ‘Anyone ever tell you that?’

‘I’m just telling the truth,’ said Rose. ‘And if I was you, I’d stop saying nasty things. People who do that don’t last very long in these films.’

Tad swallowed nervously and, for once, didn’t seem to have a reply.

Now there were more noises from downstairs – a loud scraping and bumping as though something heavy was being dragged across the floor.

‘We really should go down there and look for Sam,’ muttered Captain Holder, but nobody made a move towards the staircase. He looked around at their grim, sweating faces. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘I guess he’ll just have to take his chances. Let’s have a look around up here.’ He led the way along the landing and the others followed him.

Kip and Beth crept along a corridor on the ground floor, peering cautiously through each open doorway they came to. It was almost completely dark, with only the occasional bit of moonlight pouring in to each room through a barred window.

‘I wish we’d brought a torch with us,’ said Beth quietly. They were both horribly aware of thumping, crashing noises coming from the direction of the main entrance.

Kip didn’t say anything. He was too intent on finding Rose to think about much else. He peered cautiously through the doorway of the next room he came to. It appeared to be as wrecked as everywhere else and looked like it had been some kind of laboratory. He saw a stainless-steel operating table and a litter of lab equipment – broken test tubes, Bunsen burners and, against one wall, a whole row of
refrigerators
. He went in cautiously, aware of broken glass crunching beneath his feet. Beth followed close behind.

‘She won’t be in here,’ said Beth.

‘Don’t be so sure,’ warned Kip. ‘There’s plenty of places to hide in here.’

‘Why would she be hiding?’ asked Beth.

‘How many reasons do you need?’ said Kip. ‘I feel like hiding myself.’ In the silence they could hear crashing sounds coming from along the hall. The tiger was still trying to break down the door.

‘Why doesn’t it give up?’ muttered Kip.

‘I guess it’s hungry,’ said Beth.

‘How can it be? It’s just eaten a whole Neanderthal.’

‘We don’t know that it ate the whole thing,’ argued Beth. ‘Maybe it just nibbled on him. I reckon we’d be a bit more tender.’

‘Will you stop talking about stuff like that?’ protested Kip. ‘I really don’t want to think about being eaten right now.’

‘Sorry,’ said Beth. ‘Look, maybe we should go up to the next floor.’

‘Shush!’ Kip thought he heard movement coming from a dark corner of the room. ‘Rose, is that you?’ he muttered. He took a step forward and his foot clunked against something. He stooped, groped around and his hands connected with something
metal
. He picked up a heavy machete. In the dim wash of moonlight, he could see that the blade was black with dried blood, but he hung onto it anyway, telling himself that at least it was some kind of a weapon. Again, he heard that sound – a rustling. ‘Rose?’ He moved closer to the dark corner.

‘Don’t bother,’ said Beth, her voice filled with dread. ‘It won’t be her.’

‘Quiet!’ snapped Kip. ‘We don’t know that.’

‘Sure we do,’ Beth warned him. ‘You’ve seen films like this. They always have things jumping out of the dark to scare you.’

‘Pipe down will you? I can’t hear myself think.’

Kip edged closer into the corner.

‘Rose?’ he whispered, and he thought he heard a low gasp coming from out of the darkness. It sounded like the kind of sound his sister might make if she was crying. ‘Rose, don’t be scared,’ he whispered. ‘It’s me, Kip.’

He reached out a hand into the darkness and his fingers touched something soft and warm, but it didn’t feel like a little girl. Suddenly, shockingly, something bit deep into the back of his hand, sending a jolt of pain flickering up his arm. He yelled and jumped back with a curse and then something powerful came flapping up out of the darkness at him, something big with leathery wings and wild eyes that seemed to shine in the darkness. He also got
a
flash of some razor-sharp teeth but then he was too busy trying to get away from the creature, which came swooping down at his head, its huge wings flapping madly, battering him like a flurry of punches. It was as big as an umbrella.

He remembered the machete in his hand and flailed wildly at the creature, which emitted an unearthly screech but kept right on coming.

‘What is it?’ he yelled as he stumbled around the room, trying to swat the thing away from him.

‘A bat,’ offered Beth helpfully, looking about for some kind of weapon. ‘A vampire bat, I think.’ She saw a broom standing against one wall and snatching it up, she ran forward and swung wildly at the creature, but her aim was bad and she only succeeded in swiping Kip across the back of the head.

‘Ow! Do me a favour. Stop helping!’ yelled Kip. He lashed out with the machete again and provoked another shriek from the bat. Warm, sticky fluid splashed down onto his face and the huge creature flapped up towards the ceiling, injured but far from dead.

‘Oh, gross!’ muttered Beth. ‘Let’s get out of here.’

They retreated towards the door and the bat came after them again, flapping and shrieking madly. Kip was the last out of the room. The bat made a determined swoop for him and he slammed the door shut. There was a heavy impact on the other side as
the
bat piled headfirst into it. There was the brief sound of beating wings and then all went quiet. Kip frowned, looking down at the back of his hand, which had two huge puncture marks in it.

‘Nice,’ he said. ‘That thing was after my blood.’

‘Told you not to go in there,’ said Beth.

Kip looked at her. ‘You got a better plan?’ he muttered.

‘Yes. I think we should head up to the next floor.’ She glanced apprehensively down the corridor to the main doors, where the tiger was still doing its best to smash its way through.

‘But there’s loads more rooms down here,’ argued Kip. ‘Rose could be in any one of them. Supposing we go up there and she’s down here and that tiger manages to batter through the door.’

‘But I really think she’ll be upstairs.’

‘What makes you say that?’

‘It seems more likely somehow.’

‘But that’s just a
guess!
’ protested Kip. ‘You really have no idea where she is. Just give me one good reason why you think she might be up there.’

At that moment, the Communicator started flashing. Kip pressed the button and a familiar voice spoke in his ear.

‘Kip,’ said Mr Lazarus. ‘I just thought I’d let you know. Rose and her companions are up on the first floor.’

‘Oh … er … right,’ said Kip. He glanced sheepishly at Beth then looked away. ‘We’re on the ground floor right now,’ he told Mr Lazarus. ‘We’ll get straight up there.’ He began to lead the way back along the corridor and gestured to Beth to follow him.

‘Told you,’ said Beth. Kip ignored her.

‘Listen,’ said the voice in his ear. ‘I’m going to send the Retriever up there. Rose and the others are in a room filled with incubators.’

‘What are they?’ asked Kip.

‘Like big glass boxes; the things that premature babies are placed in. I have to act quickly before they leave the room. You’ll need to go up there and find the room, it’s to the left of the staircase. Remember, without the Retriever none of you can come back. I also thought I should warn you, the film has only got thirty minutes left to run.’

‘OK. But look, if it gets really close, can’t you rewind the film again, like you did before?’

‘What would be the point of that? You won’t get any closer to Rose. You have to make a real effort to catch up with her.’

‘We’re trying,’ protested Kip.

‘Try harder. I’m sending the Retriever in now.’

The earpiece went dead.

A particularly loud crash from the direction of the main door reminded Kip that they probably didn’t have time to stand around and discuss this.

‘Come on,’ he said. ‘The staircase is back in the foyer. Hopefully, we can—’

He stopped talking. A figure had just stepped out of a room up ahead and was walking away from them along the corridor. Even in the dim light they could see he was dressed in a yellow raincoat.

‘Hey,’ said Kip. ‘I think that’s one of the guys from the film.’

He started forward and Beth followed him.

‘His name’s Sam, I think,’ she said.

‘Yeah, that’s right,’ said Kip. ‘Hey, Sam, wait up a minute!’

The man stopped walking. He turned slowly round to face Kip and Beth and they froze in their tracks. It wasn’t Sam – not unless he had suddenly grown another foot in height, had thrown away his shoes and trousers and had developed a sloping forehead. What they were looking at was a Neanderthal, who for reasons best known to himself, had put on Sam’s yellow raincoat. It was way too small for him and didn’t even begin to cover his hairy chest. He stared at the newcomers and made a kind of snuffling, grunting sound. Kip noticed that he had something big in one hand – something he was chewing on.

‘I wonder what happened to Sam,’ he muttered.

‘I think I know,’ said Beth bleakly.

Then Kip realised just exactly what it was the Neanderthal was eating. It was a human arm. He was
gnawing
on it like it was the biggest chicken drumstick in the world.

‘Ewww!’ said Beth. ‘Minging!’

The Neanderthal studied them both for a moment. Then he spat out a finger and dropped the arm on the floor. Clearly he thought he had just spotted something tastier.

‘Oh hell,’ murmured Kip. ‘He’s looking at us funny.’

‘Well nobody’s laughing,’ said Beth. ‘I didn’t realise Neanderthals were cannibals.’

‘They are in
this
film,’ said Kip. ‘That’s all that matters.’

Now the Neanderthal was moving towards them, studying them intently. A low growl came from him and he licked his lips. Beth nudged Kip urgently.

‘You’ll have to do the business,’ she said.

‘The business?’ Kip looked down at the machete in his hand and then shook his head. ‘Oh, no way,’ he whispered. ‘I’m not doing that.’