Web of Fire Bind-up (32 page)

‘You OK?' he asked.

‘I'm good,' said Mump. ‘Come on. Let's blast 'em!'

They scrambled back up to the entrance hole and Zip quickly pushed the cover back into place so that there was only a thin strip of light showing. As the huge spider approached, the ground began to shake and a shower of loose earth cascaded between them into the cellar below.

Zip lifted the cover slightly, peered out and then turned to Mump.

‘Right, here they come,' he said, unbuttoning the top button of his jacket and taking out a box of matches. ‘Remember, these are only short fuses. The moment that thing's on top of us, we light, stick and cover. Got it?'

Mump nodded and shook the sticky bombs in the air as though demonstrating how to play the maracas.

‘Showtime,' he said.

Zip gingerly lifted the cover again. Adrenalin shot
through his veins as he saw that the gigantic spider was only a few metres away now, its massive body crouching low above the street as it advanced. He noticed that some of its hairs had been burned off in the explosion and pieces of dust and debris were lodged in its thick bristles. A pair of sharp, curved fangs hung from its slime-covered mouth, glinting in the winter sunlight like silver scimitars. From somewhere behind its legs a group of soldiers began to fire indiscriminately into the ruins, the flashes from their guns clearly visible as they attempted to flush out their unseen attackers.

Zip flipped over onto his back and took a match from the box.

‘Ready?' he asked.

Mump nodded.

‘Ready.'

‘OK,' said Zip. ‘Let's do it.'

He struck the match against a stone and as it flared he saw Mump's eyes blinking in the darkness. For a brief moment he wished that all the horror and killing was over and that the two of them were fishing once more, high in the mountains where salmon leapt from bright streams and the water ran clear across polished stones.

Then the fuses were lit, the cover was off and in the confusion of smoke and gunfire he thrust a sticky bomb deep into the bristles of the spider's leg, threw another one at its belly and dived back into the hole just as the bombs ignited and the world blew apart in a blistering roar of fire and flame.

Crashing down into the cellar he covered his head with his arms as lumps of rock and earth rained down on top of him. Something hard struck his arm and he cried out in pain, but he was quickly distracted from his own troubles by another cry which came from the far side of the cellar. Kicking off a slab of stone that lay across his legs, he staggered through a cloud of dust towards the shouting figure in the corner.

‘Get it off me,' breathed Mump's scared, shaky voice in the darkness. ‘Zip please – get it off me!'

Peering into the gloom, Zip saw Mump lying awkwardly on his back next to the wall. Something had fallen across his chest and pinned him to the rubble.

He seemed very frightened.

‘Hold still, mate,' said Zip. ‘I'll get you out of there.'

Coughing his way through the smoke and dust, he bent down to get a better view of the obstruction and then suddenly leapt backwards with a shout of alarm.

‘Aw,
no
!' he exclaimed, recoiling in horror. For what he had thought was a piece of wood was, in fact, a fat bloodied segment of one of the spider's legs. As Zip stared at it in disgust it twitched spasmodically, like a worm caught in the heat of the midday sun.

‘Take it away, Zip,' Mump pleaded. ‘Please!'

‘Don't worry, buddy,' said Zip as the limb continued to jerk and tremble. ‘We'll soon have you out of there. Now when I say push, you push, OK?'

‘OK,' wheezed Mump breathlessly. ‘But hurry up, will you? I can't breathe!'

Zip braced himself against the wall of the cellar, shouted ‘Push, Mump!' and kicked the spider's leg with both feet. The still squirming limb rolled off and fell with a loud crash onto the sheet of corrugated iron that lay with the rest of the debris on the cellar floor.

Zip pulled Mump to his feet and they stared at the circle of grey sky above them, listening to the sporadic rattle of gunfire.

‘Time we were gone I think,' said Zip.

Slipping away through the smoke, they saw that the huge spider had crumpled over onto its left side and was now engulfed in flame. Mump stooped to pick something up from the wreckage and when they had put several streets between themselves and the trigger-happy soldiers, Zip saw that it was half a loaf of bread. It had been toasted on one side by the flames, but it smelled delicious and Zip realised how long it had been since they had enjoyed proper food. They stopped beneath the twisted metal of a lamppost and Mump broke off a piece, handing it to Zip before breaking off another chunk and stuffing it hungrily into his mouth. For a moment, the warm, yeasty taste reminded Zip of his childhood, when his mother used to feed him freshly baked bread from the oven.

He was about to tear off another piece when he noticed Mump staring at a blackened house on the other side of the road. The first-floor wall had been torn off in an explosion, revealing a room with two little beds. The interior walls were covered in a yellow, flowery wallpaper
which was now ripped and peeling. A small dressing table could still be seen against one wall and items of children's clothing were strewn untidily across the floor. A tiny wooden cot lay crushed beneath a heavy timber beam.

Zip followed Mump's gaze to where two young children – a boy and a girl – stood silently in the doorway, their clothes no more than rags which hung in tatters from their tiny frames. The horrors of war had taken the shine from their eyes and they now stared blankly out at a world that had abandoned them.

Without a word, Mump crossed the street and held out the loaf of bread. The girl snatched it from his hand and the two children ran quickly away across the rubble, darting off through a sea of grey stones until they were lost from sight.

Mump stood staring after them for a long time until finally the sound of gunfire brought him back to his senses and he crossed the street again to rejoin Zip.

Zip put an arm around his shoulder.

‘Come on,' he said. ‘Let's go and get the bikes.'

Together they made their way to the outskirts of the city before heading out towards the mountains over fields of freshly fallen snow.

Sam stretched out his hands and felt the heat begin to warm them. He watched Salus push a piece of wood into the fire and saw how quickly the blaze engulfed it until at last the wood became the flames and there was nothing
left except grey embers, crumbling away to nothing.

‘It's strange,' he said, ‘but I feel younger here than when I was on Earth.'

‘That is because you have become the person you were the last time you walked in Aurobon,' Salus replied. ‘You are here because Aurobon needs you, Sam.'

Once more, Sam tried to remember how he had got here, but instead a blackness grew inside him until he could bear it no longer and cried out in fear and loneliness. Then Salus put a hand on top of his head and Sam felt the fire and the flames, and the smoke twisting away into the sky. When he opened his eyes, the cold mountain air rushed into his lungs and he felt refreshed and clear-headed, as though he had just woken from a long sleep.

‘The darkness comes again,' said Salus, picking up the other robe, ‘and the people of Earth are in terrible danger. You must find the one who is true of heart. And remember: if you should ever lose your way, look for a guiding light.'

‘Wait!' called Sam as Salus began to walk away across the shore toward the mountain. ‘I don't understand!'

‘Be patient,' answered Salus, ‘and in times of trouble, listen with your heart.'

The lake was as smooth as steel and the early morning sun had already begun to thaw a few patches of snow on the lower reaches of the mountain.

As Sam gazed at the circle of mountain peaks and the sweep of pale-blue sky, his eyes were irresistibly drawn toward a small gap in the trees where the shore met the base of the mountain.

Find the one who is true of heart.

Something stirred deep inside him and his mind was suddenly filled with memories of warmth and sunshine, of a small blonde-haired girl swimming in the lake's crystal waters.

‘Skipper,' he whispered, remembering how the two of them had once flown wasps together in Aurobon, before something happened which returned him to his old life again.

Back on Earth, he had forgotten that this world ever existed.

But now that he was back in Aurobon, it seemed as though he had never left. Instead it was his life on Earth that felt like a distant dream, fading like sunlight on a winter's afternoon.

But what had become of Skipper? Was she still alive?

He decided to try to make his way to the airbase, which as far as he could remember, was somewhere down on the plains. If he could find Commander Firebrand and the others, they might be able to tell him what was going on…

The wind blew fiercely across the face of the mountain and Sam crawled behind a large rock to try and get some respite from the storm. The morning's climb through the forest had been quite pleasant. Sheltered from the cold wind and accompanied by the occasional burst of birdsong he had made good progress, following the path of the stream up through the trees with a feeling of hope in his heart. The world had become more and more familiar to him as he made his way beneath the fragrant pines. Every now and then he had stopped to stare at the sunshine filtering through the trees, watching fingers of steam rise from the icy ground to form layers that hung like gossamer above the twisted roots. As he stood alone in the woods and listened to the wind blowing high in the treetops, he had experienced a feeling of belonging, of coming home.

But now that he had climbed over the ridge onto the exposed slope of the mountain, things were very different.

Thick white snowflakes swirled all around him and it
became almost impossible to see. Afraid that if he carried on he might stumble into some deep abyss, he decided to rest in the shelter of the rock and wait out the storm.

Pulling his robe tightly around himself, he curled up into a ball in an effort to conserve some heat. As he lay there shivering, he heard a humming sound which grew louder and louder until it felt as though it were coming from inside his head.

Sam looked up and was immediately confronted by a horrific sight. Only a few metres away hovered a creature that seemed to have flown from the depths of his darkest nightmares. It was the biggest, most frightening insect that he had ever seen in his life.

Sam shrank back in terror as the grey, evil-looking fly landed in the snow with a heavy thump. It swivelled its head around and scanned the rocks as though looking for something. White bristles sprouted from its body and as it surveyed the winter landscape the snow-covered mountains were reflected in its jet-black eyes.

There was a loud click as it folded a huge pair of brown-veined wings over its back and then started to walk forward a little way, collecting crystals of ice in the stiff black hairs that covered its legs. It stopped and looked around. Then it began to grind its sharp mandibles together with a rasping, grating noise. As it did so, a dark, foul-smelling liquid spilled from its jaws and a brownish-yellow stain spread out across the snow.

Sam felt his stomach heave, but he gritted his teeth, swallowed and slowly began to edge his way back around
the rock. If he could just make it to the other side, maybe the hideous creature wouldn't see him. The jagged edges of the rock pressed into his back as he cautiously moved his feet sideways and slid his body along towards the corner of the stone. Keeping his eyes fixed on the massive insect, he was about to manoeuvre his body back around the rock when the fly suddenly tensed and Sam saw that the hairs on its body were quivering. It seemed to be picking up vibrations through the air and, terrified that it might be sensing his own movements, Sam held his breath and remained perfectly still. His natural instinct was to run away as fast as he could, but he knew that to do so would be suicide.

The fly began to scuttle around in a circle until it was pointing back down the mountain. As Sam began to breathe again its head suddenly twitched around and for one dreadful moment he saw his own terrified reflection mirrored hundreds of times in the insect's compound eyes. But then it unfolded its wings and rose into the air with a loud buzz, stirring up a huge cloud of snow behind it. Sam was knocked sideways by the stinging blast of cold air that followed in its wake, but as he scrambled to his feet again he saw that the snowstorm had stopped and the sky was beginning to clear.

Watching the fly disappear across the valley, his heart leapt wildly with excitement as a break in the clouds revealed the outline of tall towers rising from the snow-covered plains below, and he realised that he was looking down upon the great city of Vahlzi.

Doctor Janik Jancy was Head of InRaD (Insect Research & Development) and to say that he was having a bad week would have been something of an understatement.

Vermian government forces had started to lose a lot of their ant squadrons during reconnaissance patrols on Earth. It seemed that many of the ants were being eaten by sheep, and no one could understand why.

Jancy knew there had to be a solution, but he was damned if he could find it.

It had never been a problem before. Ant crews were well trained in safety procedures and specifically taught to avoid putting themselves or their vehicles in danger. But interviews with those who had managed to escape from their ants revealed a disturbing pattern.

It appeared that in each case, the control panels installed in the ants had ceased to function and the ants would suddenly go onto auto-pilot. They would head for fields where sheep were grazing, climb to the top of a
blade of grass and then clamp their jaws onto it. No matter how hard they tried, the ant crews simply couldn't get the ants to move again.