TOOTH SPIKE CHAPTER THREE

Chapter Three 

Karl yawned.  They had been walking for ages.  He was starting to not like being a spy.  They were on Rangitoto Island and had flown over there 2 hours ago.  Now it was midnight.  Karl was equipped with a gun and Paul was equipped with a villain blaster 2000, also a gun. 

Rangitoto was a rocky volcano off the harbour of Auckland.  All it really was was rocks.  Karl and Paul had no idea that they were being watched.

A woman with a turban like Marge Simpson’s haircut watched Karl and Paul carefully as they walked past.  The top of her turban was shaped as a spike.  A black spike.  Toothspike.  She had a gun in her hand.  She had been sent out from her master to examine the newcomers to the island.  Maybe even kill them.  She didn’t know whether they were bad or good.  In this case she kind of hoped they were bad.  She soon found out.

“Hey Paul” said Karl  “where are we gonna’ find Toothspike?”

“SHHH!!” muttered Paul “There could be someone watching us”. 

Sure enough, two seconds later a woman jumped out from behind a tree and screamed “Hands up!  Drop your weapons, you are to come with me”.  Suddenly Paul swerved around and kicked the woman’s gun out of her hand.  She then pointed her Villain Blaster 2000 at the woman and said “Take us to your leader”.   The woman turned around and started walking.  “Follow Me,” she said.  For hours they tramped.  Brushing aside bushes, leaves and rocks.  They were walking upwards towards the crater.  Then the woman with the turban started running.  Paul and Karl could only do one thing - follow.  They were running completely off the track, pushing aside huge ferns as they desperately followed the lady.

In front of them was a pile of sticks and leaves piled on the grounds.  Unfortunately Paul and Karl didn’t notice this and tumbled into a huge pit.  They were still falling when Paul screamed, “Grab hold of something on the walls!”

It was lucky they did, because below them were a pile of black gleaming spikes, eagerly waiting for their feed.  Paul hung upside down with her foot lassoed in a vine and Karl had grabbed hold of another vine and was dangling towards the spikes.

“What are we gonna’ do?” murmured Karl from above.

“I have no idea,” replied Paul “we could try climbing”.

They tried it.  At first it worked.  Paul and Karl climbed up straggly vines and slowly moved up to the top of the pit.  But when Paul’s vine she was holding onto snapped, Karl decided that it wasn’t the best idea.

“Karl” screamed Paul “see if there’s any sort of secret passage you can climb through”.

Karl kicked around with his boot into the wall.  He was about to give up when a small load of bricks gave way to reveal a narrow passageway.

“Found one” call Karl back to Paul “But how are you gonna’ get out”

“I’ll find a way” came the answer.

Karl slowly crawled into the passage.  As he got his whole body in the rocks behind the wall it closed again.  He was in complete darkness and slowly running out of air.  There was only one thing to do – move up the passage.  Karl could feel stuff under his knees, crawling around.  They were alive.

After about 5 minutes of crawling, the tunnel widened out so Karl could walk, but still the darkness surrounded him.  Suddenly Karl dropped about a metre.   He slowly lifted himself off the floor in agonising pain.  Finally, after a suffering hour, light flooded into the tunnel.  Karl slowly looked at his feet.  He screamed.  Underneath the soles of his bare feet were millions and billions of fiery red centipedes.  They were huge with about a squillion legs on each of them.

Karl ran.  Then he stopped.  He had come to a cliff.  Down below him were thousands of people working.  Building something.  All of them had the T-shirt with a black spike on it.  So this was where Toothspike was hidden.  Karl looked more closely and realised that they were building tons and tons of black spikes.  The spikes were sitting on top of a huge wooden block that looked like it could rise upwards.  He looked at the roof and was amazed to see heaps of dirt and rock.  The roof must be the actual island, or part of it anyway.  Karl thought about all the hundreds of tourists walking above, not knowing what was underneath them.  After about 10 minutes the work stopped.  The workers scattered away.  All except one.  An announcement was sent out.

“Please leave the area if you are still here!  Commencing launch in 3 minutes!”

“Launch?” Karl realised what was going on.  They were going to lift the spikes up into the tourists.  Millions of people would be killed!  But why?  Suddenly if occurred to Karl that he had to do something.  How would be get down?  It was a steep drop to the ground and if he jumped too far, even if he survived, he would be stabbed.

“Commencing launch in 1 minuted!”

Karl looked down and saw a rope ladder curving down to the ground. 

“How convenient” thought Karl.  He slowly crept down the ladder.

“Commencing launch in 5…4…3…2…. 1….”

Karl dived at the man who had started turning a handle to lift the spikes.  The man shouted out but Karl was too quick.  He swung a punch at the man knocking him unconscious.  He then felt a hand grasp onto his shoulder.  He spun around.  Two men were standing there; they both had spikes on their t-shirts.  Karl was taken away while the other man turned the wheel.

Karl was led away and was just able to hear the screams of pain above until he was brought into another room.  The room was a cage with no windows and no bed or toilet.  It was completely bare apart from a young girl sitting in the corner.  The guard walked away.

“Were you captured too?” asked Karl.

“That’s right,” she said cutely.

“Did you come inside the volcano?” asked Karl.

“That’s right,” she said again.

“What’s your name?” asked Karl.

“Mrs Aggey” she said.

“Mrs Aggey?” asked Karl confused.

“That’s right,” said Mrs Aggey.