by C. J. Skuse
Damian turned on the engine again and slowly reversed the hearse back along the concrete towards the Science block. Home and dry.
Well, almost. There was just one tiny problem.
‘You are joking,’ said Zoe.
‘Nope, that sucker ain’t gonna go in there, no chance,’ said Damian.
‘Even if we tilt it? How about upending it?’
‘Nah, too long and too wide.’
I could hear Pee Wee yapping for me inside the lab. ‘What are we going to do then?’
We had got it into the building and as far as the door to the Chemistry lab and there we had stopped. The fish tank wouldn’t fit.
Damian shrugged. ‘What do you want me to do about it? I can’t take the wall down, can I?’
‘Dudes, this is getting way heavy,’ said Louis, straining to hold onto our end of the fish tank. I could hear Pee Wee barking inside the lab.
‘It’s okay, Peeps, I’m here,’ I called to him and he woofed back as though he was happy to hear my voice.
At the other end of the tank, Zoe scowled at Damian. ‘You could at least take the door off its hinges. Can’t you even do that?’
‘Nah, it still wouldn’t go. That ain’t gonna make no difference, taking it off its hinges.’
If we’d been anywhere else, doing anything else, they would have looked like an old married couple arguing about DIY.
Zoe looked exasperated. ‘We HAVE to do this. We HAVE to get this done, before Monday. We’ve got no choice.’
‘I hate to say this but it’s now Sunday,’ said Louis, grimacing with the pain of holding his corner of the tank, and nodding towards the clock. ‘It’s a quarter to four in the morning.’
‘Sssshhh!’ I said. I’d heard something.
And we all heard it then. Screaming sirens in the distance.
‘Look, if we’re gonna do this, we ain’t got a lot of choice, have we?’ said Damian.
‘Meaning?’ said Zoe, adjusting her grip on the tank.
‘Meaning, there’s no point standing here moaning because there’s nothing we can do about it. The lab’s a non-starter. We’ve got to find somewhere else. Somewhere with double doors or summing.’
At the other end of the corridor, after the two sets of double doors, was the gymnasium. ‘The gym has double doors?’ I suggested.
‘We don’t have the KEY,’ said Zoe, the word ‘key’ sounding like it had a hammer attached to it.
‘You don’t need a key with me around, sweetheart,’ Damian smirked. ‘I can break your doors in for you, no bother.’
Zoe thinned her eyes and turned her face back to me. ‘What about an electrical supply?’
‘Um . . . well, there are ceiling lights, aren’t there?’
‘Yeah,’ said Louis. ‘There’s a fuse box on the wall I think. If you’ve got a length of wire, you could hook him up to the fuse box. Or the electronic scoreboard in the—’
‘Yes!’ cried Zoe. ‘I could re-route the electrical streams!’ she interrupted. ‘That’s excellent, you two!’
I beamed. Louis beamed. Us two had figured it out together. My heart skipped a beat. And now it was all about getting Sexy Dead Boy’s heart started. That was all that mattered.
Big fat trouble
The next ten minutes went by like Damian’s driving: fast and furious. And, for me, flappy. Everyone else seemed to know exactly what they were doing. Zoe was in charge of Sexy Dead Boy, Louis was sent to find scouring pads and sterilising solution to clean the tank, Damian crowbarred our way into the gym with a crowbar he found in the Design and Technology room (I’d always thought crowbar was a verb – I didn’t know they actually existed) and I went to see if Pee Wee was all right and then rushed back to join them.
‘Camille, we need you,’ Zoe called to me as I stood by the gym doors pretending to be some kind of lookout, not that there was anything to look out for – everything was dead quiet. I helped them carry the tank over to the far wall, in front of the back doors and directly underneath the pull-out electronic scoreboard where Zoe wanted it. Zoe then made us scrub the tank totally clean before Sexy Dead Boy went into it. The huge gym echoed as we worked, our shoes squeaking and thudding and scuffing loudly across the wooden floor. We used the gardener’s hose from the tap just outside the back doors to get the fresh cold water Zoe wanted to fill the tank with and filled it with the salt from Fat Pang’s. When we’d done all that it was ready for Sexy Dead Boy.
‘On my count . . . one, two, three,’ said Zoe, and on three, we gently lowered his freezing body into the water-filled tank. Even Damian was careful with him.
I hated to think what might happen if he didn’t come to life this time. How Zoe might feel. What Zoe might do. This was our last chance and it had to work. For her sake, it had to work.
Once SDB was floating in the tank, everyone stopped talking and just looked at him. Then we all looked at each other. I reached for Louis’ hand and he held it tightly. Then, much closer than before came the whining noise of police sirens.
‘Oh my God!’ I cried, my voice bouncing off the stone walls. ‘It’s them. They’re coming for us!’
‘Quick, get the copper wire from the Biology lab, Camille. Hurry!’ Zoe called to me and I darted towards the exit. ‘We need something to bar the doors,’ I heard her shout as I ran.
‘What can I do?’ said Louis.
‘Just don’t let them in, don’t let them in!’ she shouted. ‘Just stop them from coming in!’
The sirens sounded louder outside.
When I came back with the copper wire, Zoe snatched it from me and began tying it around Sexy Dead Boy’s wrists and told Damian to do the same with his ankles.
‘Camille, go and see how Louis is doing with the doors. Go!’ Zoe barked at me and I immediately ran across the court to the main doors to help him. He was using a skipping rope to tie the door handles together.
‘What are they doing?’ I asked him, looking back at Zoe who was on Damian’s shoulders and doing something at the back of the electronic scoreboard.
‘They’re creating a wire circuit between the scoreboard and the lighting panel,’ he said, still winding the rope tightly around the handles, just as we heard movement out in the corridor.
‘Can they do that?’ I said.
Louis shrugged, coming to the end of his rope. ‘They’re both pretty good at Chemistry, aren’t they? I don’t know.’ He tugged on the rope to check it was secure. ‘I guess we’ll find out now, won’t we?’
Damian gave us the thumbs up and Zoe climbed down off his shoulders. She stood over by the light switches and Damian went and stood opposite her. Louis and I stayed exactly where we were and held hands.
There were sounds right outside the gym. Fists banged on the doors.
‘Open up!’ a voice called.
‘They’re here!’ I shouted across the gym to Zoe.
‘I’m going to flick the switches on three!’ she shouted as she backed against the wall. ‘One, two . . .’
‘Three,’ I whispered and all at once the switches went down and the ceiling lights exploded as shoooooooooom went the charge all along the wires, faster than lightning.
Sssszzzzzzzzzzzssssssssssssssszzzzzzzzzackackackackackakcackackack!
The glass sides of the tank lit up, a neon blue rectangle of fire with a shuddering man lying inside it.
FizzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZapsssssssh hhhhpsssssshhhhhhh.
‘Turn it off!’ Louis shouted as water splashed out of the tank and all over the gym floor. The panel of switches was on fire.
‘I can’t, the switches are melting!’ Zoe yelled back, trying to touch them but pulling her hands back because of the heat.
‘It’s too much charge, it’ll blow up!’ Damian shouted.
Louis turned and started undoing the ropes on the doors.
‘No!’ I cried.
‘We’ve got to get out of here, Camille. This whole place could go up.’
‘Up where?’ I said.
&
nbsp; ‘Up in smoke,’ he said. ‘Help me!’
Fire coursed along the ceiling as I started forcing open the ropes with him. Damian skidded over and helped until we had unravelled the ropes and freed the doors, wrenching them open and tumbing out of the burning room in one pile of legs and arms, only to be grabbed by two police officers on the other side.
‘Come here, you three.’
‘No, please, it’s gonna blow up. The whole place is gonna go up!’ Louis shouted as one of the policemen held his arms and a policewoman held mine. Damian escaped them both and bolted for the end of the corridor before either could stop him.
‘Bloody hell,’ said the policeman, looking back into the gym. He saw the scene. He saw Sexy Dead Boy in the tank. There was no hiding our secret any more. ‘What the . . .’
‘That sodding de Jager again!’ the policewoman shouted. Then she saw it too. ‘Jesus . . . they’ve got a body in there.’
Ceiling tiles were starting to fall and flames were licking up the climbing ropes on the side wall. That was when they started to pull us away.
‘Zoe, we have to wait for Zoe!’ I cried.
‘She won’t leave him, Camille. Come on, let them deal with it now!’ Louis called as the policeman held his hands behind his back and guided him quickly along the corridor.
The policewoman talked into her radio. ‘Yeah, one heading your way. Damian de Jager. One possible fatality. Male, by the looks. In some sort of fish tank . . . I’ve no idea what’s been going on here . . . And a girl is still trapped but we can’t get to her. We’re bringing two more kids out . . . Yep, gymnasium.’
I saw Zoe as we were led away. She was standing close to the tank, gazing into it as Sexy Dead Boy juddered and shook and splashed in the water and the sparks got bigger and the tank was cracking and spewing and hissing water.
‘Zoe, please!’
But she stayed where she was and just turned to look at me, in her shocking blue starey-eyed way. Through the flames and the noise and the falling ceiling tiles I could see that she was smiling.
And the last thing I saw was the ceiling as it collapsed in front of her.
Outside, the sound of sirens filled the air. Me, Louis and the police officers ran round to the front of the college where three police cars were parked in the driveway, redand-blue lights flashing all over the place. Damian had been caught and was being frisked by a fat police officer with no neck. In the early morning sky, we could see flames beginning to shoot up at the back of the building. I heard one of the policemen on his walkie-talkie. From what I could gather, Fat Pang himself had called the police about the fish tank. So had Louis’ dad about the missing hearse. And so had some woman across the road who’d seen us breaking into the college.
A fire engine wailed into view and pulled up sharply into the drive. Six firemen jumped out and started unreeling a long yellow hose from the back of the truck.
‘Zoe’s still in there. Please, she’s my friend! She’s in the gym!’ I cried to one of them.
‘Get back please, behind the cars,’ he shouted at me just as two more fire engines arrived. I was so scared. I turned to Louis. ‘She won’t leave him in there. She won’t leave him! She’ll die for him, Louis.’
‘It’s okay, it’s okay,’ he said, hugging me into him.
‘It’d be suicide going back in there, Camille,’ said Damian, slouched hunched beside the police car. ‘We can’t help her.’
And it was then that I felt the plunge of dread in my stomach. ‘Oh my God, Pee Wee!’ I yanked away from Louis. ‘Pee Wee!’ I screamed. ‘He’s in the lab! I took him to the C-C-Chemistry lab. He’s tied to one of the Bunsen burners! Oh my God, I forgot him!’
I made to run towards college, but Louis and a policewoman held me back.
‘No one’s going back in there. It’s all right. We’ll get your friends, don’t worry.’
‘My dog! My little dog’s in there. He’s only a baby, we have to get him! He’s in the lab – it’s just at the opposite end of the corridor to the gym. Please, if we’re quick we can get to him, I know we can . . .’
‘We can’t, it’s too dangerous,’ said Louis. ‘There’re gas tanks in there, Camille.’
All around me the heavy black shoes of policemen clumped around, moving people back, stretching police tape all across the front of college. Fire hoses were pulled across the ground in every direction. I collapsed in a heap on the concrete, my head to the floor at Louis’ feet. All I could see was his trainers and the rain puddles. Cigarette ends and splats of chewing gum. Flyers for freshers’ night. Flyers for the Halloween party. All I could hear was the plink of glass breaking and the crackly roar of flames billowing out of the roof of the gym. The smells were of burning plastic and wood. All I could think about was my poor little dog, alone and burning inside the lab and I wept so hard. People shouted around me, telling people to, ‘Get back. Come back!’ I heard Damian yelling, ‘It’s not safe!’ Then I realised I couldn’t see Louis’ trainers anymore. They’d disappeared. And so had he.
He’d gone back in. He’d gone back in for my little dog. Just as the building burst at the seams.
People who lived in the houses across the street were coming out in pyjamas and dressing gowns to have a look at what was going on.
I squirmed and wriggled with every muscle I had to get out of Damian’s grip. ‘No, Camille!’ Damian yelled at me. ‘Don’t be stupid, it’s suicide going in there.’
‘Louis went in there! Louis went in there for Pee—’
‘You’re not going in there after him. Stupid . . . stop struggling. I’m trying to save your life, you dozy mare!’
I kicked and punched and burst out of Damian’s grip and I ran my fastest ever around the side of the building. I could hear windows smashing in the distance and I felt the heat of the fire as it licked its way up the corridor. The Biology lab was already ablaze. I prayed the fire hadn’t got as far as the Chemistry lab yet as I kept on running towards it.
‘Louis!’ I screamed, yanking back the door of the Science block and sprinting down the corridor. ‘LOUIS!’
There was smoke already in the corridor, thick and black. It was boiling in there. The walls were sweating. A near-deafening squeal startled me as several frantic hamsters scuttled under the lockers outside the lab. The burning plastic stink was thick in my nose and it started catching in my throat. There was no actual way of getting to Zoe now.
Louis was untying Pee Wee when I got inside the lab. He saw me and his face looked angry. ‘Camille! Get out of here, you stupid . . . What are you doing here?’
‘I came to find you!’ I cried, coughing all over him.
He tucked Pee Wee under his arm and grabbed hold of my hand. ‘Come on, quick!’ he coughed and we started running, as the windows all along the corridor began to explode, spraying glass outwards.
‘The fire’s getting closer!’ I cried as we sprinted back down the corridor.
‘I know, I know. Come on!’
‘But Zoe . . .’
‘We can’t, Camille, we just can’t get to her.’
As we darted out onto the concrete quad, there was another explosion and we just had time to sprint across to the Science block and dive behind the hearse. We huddled together over Pee Wee who was shaking in Louis’ arms.
‘It’s all right, it’s all right,’ I whispered, out of breath and kissing Pee Wee’s shivering little head, though everything around me seemed to be bursting or burning or crashing down. ‘You went back for him,’ I sobbed, nuzzling Pee Wee’s warm head.
‘You went back for me,’ Louis laughed, as a shower of glass and stone and papers rained down on us, and I hugged them both tighter than I’d ever hugged anything ever.
Reani-mates
So we’d been at the hospital for three hours, waiting in a green-and-blue family room to hear news about Zoe and Sexy Dead Boy.
Our parentals had been called and they’d been all fine and dandy and offered to pay for all the damage and been actually
quite pleased we had stolen a hearse and broken into the biggest Chinese restaurant in town and driven recklessly and blown up the college.
In. My. Dreams.
Once we’d got our story straight – that we needed the fish tank for our secret biochemistry experiment to reanimate a dead sheep – they just had to deal with it. Louis had been grounded for three whole months and given the full hairdryer treatment from his dad and uncle, plus an actual clip round the ear from his mum. I hadn’t actually realised a clip round the ear meant a whack; I’d always thought it was just some kind of clip.
My mum and dad had just kind of shouted at me for twenty minutes about stealing the nail art van, even though Mum hadn’t used it in, like, a year, and for burgling and arson and all of that and I stood there and took it. I’d been glad Louis was holding my hand as I probably would have cried. With Louis there, I had been more worried about how embarrassing it was that my mum still had her rollers in, and that Dad had driven to the hospital in his slippers with the holes in.
‘I can’t believe how much you’ve lied to us, Camille,’ Mum had said. ‘And as for my van. Do you know how much batteries cost? You’ll pay for that out of your wages. And you’re grounded, indefinitely. And don’t even THINK about going to that Halloween party you want to go to now, not a chance.’
I hadn’t let on that this wasn’t really a punishment because there was no longer a gym to have a Halloween party in, I had just stood there and taken my punishment. Truth was, I didn’t actually care about the Halloween party at all anymore. I’d just as soon stay at home cuddled up on the sofa with Louis and Pee Wee, watching a film.