The Dark Giants by Cerberus Jones Read Free Book Online Page B

pointed out, helpful
as ever.
    ‘What about Mum and Dad? And James? Have they seriously just slept through all of
that?’
    ‘Look,’ said Charlie. ‘Hotel: that way.’ He pointed up the hill to their right. ‘Kidnapping
space-giants and Sophie T: that way.’ He pointed down to the bush ahead of them,
and to the left. ‘And they’re moving fast. Choose.’
    ‘I could –’
    ‘No,’ he cut her off. ‘We don’t split up. I don’t mind doing something insanely dangerous,
even if it is only Sophie T we’re trying to save, but I won’t do it alone.’
    ‘But I was –’
    ‘And neither will you.’
    Amelia groaned in frustration. He was right, and she knew it, so their only options
were raising the alarm (by which time, who would know where they had taken Sophie
T?) or …
    ‘There’s no choice.’ Amelia got to her feet. ‘We have to go after them, and –’
    ‘Yeah?’
    ‘Hope for an opportunity,’ she finished lamely. ‘I think the best we can do is try
to catch up.’
    ‘Good enough,’ said Charlie. ‘Let’s go.’
    Even without a plan, it was good to be moving. Just the physical work of running
uphill, thinking where the aliens could be headed, and listening for clues, cleared
Amelia’s mind. She was too busy to feel the full force of her fear, and to worry
about what might happen next. All she had to do was find the trail.
    They reached the edge of the lawn beyond the hedge maze, and paused in front of the
wall of dense bush.
    ‘Which way?’ said Charlie.
    Amelia scanned left and right, wondering if the aliens had actually been headed anywhere,
or if they were just randomly ploughing through the trees.
    ‘Wouldn’t you think guys that big would leave a more obvious path?’ said Charlie.
    ‘Maybe if we could see as well as Lady Naomi –’ Something caught Amelia’s eye: the
faintest suggestion of a yellow glow amongst the undergrowth, and then it was gone.
‘That way, come on!’
    The bush was vicious. Serrated leaves and thorny twigs grabbed at them with every
step, and their pyjamas were not designed to cope with any of it. ‘I’m sleeping in
jeans from now on,’ puffed Charlie.
    ‘Look, look!’
    Ahead, a good-sized branch of a banksia tree was snapped in half and dangling. It
was so high up that Amelia could only have touched the break with the tips of her
fingers at a full stretch.
    ‘They’re making a path through – Yeah, see? There.’ She pointed in the darkness.
‘The ferns have all been squashed flat.’
    They picked up speed, then slowed down again almost immediately. They wanted to follow
the aliens, not catch up to them. Through a gully, then a grove of straggly gums
(more branches snapped), and up a rocky rise, and then so deep into the bush they
were far past the farthest they’d ever been. And that had been with Lady Naomi and
in full daylight. And then they saw the aliens.
    But where was Sophie T?
    Several small trees had been knocked down and piled to one side, making a rough clearing.
The giants had taken off their backpacks and Spike was rummaging through his.
    Amelia and Charlie hunched down behind a boulder and watched. Foxy was still engrossed
in his scanner. Beard was noisily chewing on something, and scratching his belly
contentedly. Charlie nudged Amelia: there was Sophie T, still in that exact position
they’d last seen her, with a hand partially raised. Only she wasn’t standing now,
she’d been laid down on the ground, and was almost hidden in the long grass. Safe
– for now.
    Spike stood up straight, yawned, and began humming as he fussed about the baggage,
hardly paying any attention to Sophie T.
    They don’t seem interested in her at all, Amelia thought. Then what? What could get
these giants to team up with Foxy?
    Spike laughed back and then said again to Foxy, ‘So where’s the beast? You said you
had a signal.’
    ‘I have,’ Foxy yipped. ‘Or I did. These animals are incredibly hard to track.’
    ‘No more excuses!’ snapped