Koala Roundup

by Justin D'Ath

  They followed the tree snake down through the trees. Pretty soon they reached the fence. The skinny, green snake slithered straight through the wire and kept going towards the river. But the Mission Fox agents and Tink were trapped inside the fence.

  ‘Look!’ Jordan pointed.

  A grey shape came waddling towards them. They couldn’t see it very well because of all the smoke. But as it came closer, the shape turned into a big, fluffy koala. It was walking along next to the fence, looking for a way through.

  ‘Where’s the baby?’ asked Harry.

  Jordan rubbed his eyes. The smoke was making them itchy and he couldn’t see clearly. But there was no mistake – the big, grey koala didn’t have a baby on its back.

  ‘It’s not Mrs K,’ he said softly.

  They had forgotten about all the other koalas in the sanctuary. When Jordan and Harry had come here on a school excursion, the ranger had told them there were thirty altogether. That meant the twins and Myrtle had to rescue thirty koalas from the bushfire!

  It was more than Mission Fox could handle.

  ‘We’ll have to get help,’ Jordan said. ‘Where’s the FoxPhone, Agent H?’

  Harry rummaged in the FoxPack and handed his brother the secret Mission Fox mobile phone.

  ‘Who are you going to call?’

  ‘Wildlife Rescue,’ Jordan said. He found the number in the FoxPhone’s address book and pressed the call button.

  Wildlife Rescue was like Mission Fox, except it was run by adults. Sometimes they helped Jordan and Harry if a rescue mission was too hard for the twins to handle on their own.

  Sometimes the twins helped them – like the time some baby dingoes had got separated from their mother.

  Nobody answered the Wildlife Rescue phone. There was just a recorded message: ‘All our rescue workers are busy at the moment. Please leave your name and number, and we’ll call you back.’

  Jordan left a message, then slipped the FoxPhone into his pocket. ‘There’s no one there,’ he said. ‘What are we going to do, Agent H?’

  Harry was watching the koala. It was getting really close. Finally it noticed the Mission Fox agents and stopped in surprise.

  For a few seconds, nobody moved. Everybody just stared at each other. Then Harry had an idea.

  ‘Shoo!’ he said.

  7

  STARING CONTEST

  When Harry said shoo, he wanted the koala to turn around and head back towards the gate. But that’s not what happened.

  It let out a grunt of alarm and went shooting up the fence.

  Koalas are good at climbing, but not even a koala could get over the spiky bits at the top. It clung to the wire just below the spikes, staring down at the Mission Fox agents and Tink with a terrified look in its eyes.

  ‘Shishkebab!’ said Harry. ‘How can we let it know there’s only one way out of the sanctuary – through the gate, not over the fence?’

  Jordan thought of a way.

  ‘We’re your friends,’ he mind-whispered to the scared koala. ‘Climb back down and follow the fence in the other direction. The gate’s wide open. You can go down to the river and be safe from the bushfire.’

  The koala didn’t move.

  ‘I don’t think pet whispering works with koalas,’ Jordan said.

  Harry didn’t say anything. Pet whispering didn’t work with lots of things. He passed Tink’s rope to his brother, then opened the FoxPack and pulled out the thick leather gloves the Mission Fox agents used for rescuing echidnas. Then he pulled out the pillow slip for carrying baby kangaroos.

  ‘What are you going to do?’ asked Jordan.

  ‘It’s Captain Amazing time,’ Harry said, walking over to the fence.

  Captain Amazing wasn’t just brave, he was good at sporty things – like climbing fences.

  ‘Careful!’ Jordan said. ‘It might scratch you.’

  Harry had climbed the fence. He was clinging to the wire with one hand, and trying to put the pillow slip over the koala’s head with the other.

  Crunch!

  Next moment, the koala was swinging from one of the gloves – with Harry’s hand still inside it!

  ‘Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeow!’ yelled Harry.

  He shook the koala loose. It tumbled to the ground, landed on all fours like a cat, and took off. But it didn’t look where it was going.

  It nearly ran into Tink.

  Tink gave a little yap, and the koala stopped in its tracks.

  The two animals stood nose-to-nose, staring at each other. Jordan got ready to pull Tink away, in case there was a fight. But the puppy and the koala just eyeballed each other. It was a staring contest . . . and Tink won!

  Suddenly the koala turned and went trotting off in the direction of the gate.

  ‘Phew!’ said Jordan. ‘I thought someone was going to get hurt.’

  ‘Someone did get hurt,’ said Harry, climbing down from the fence. He showed Jordan his bleeding thumb. ‘Koalas are dangerous!’

  A black gumleaf fell out of the sky between the twins, trailing a line of smoke behind it.

  ‘Not as dangerous as bushfires,’ Jordan said. ‘Let’s get out of here!’

  8

  SLITHER

  Before the twins could move, they spotted a big grey shape coming towards them out of the smoke. It was an adult koala with a little one on its back. Mrs K and her baby had arrived at last!

  Behind them came three more adult koalas. One looked like the koala that had just bitten Harry and had a staring contest with Tink. It must have changed direction when it met the others. Now all of them were walking away from the gate!

  Jordan tried one more time. ‘Turn around, koalas!’ he mind-whispered. ‘You’re going in the wrong direction!’

  Nothing happened. Pet whispering definitely didn’t work with koalas. They kept coming, waddling along next to the fence until they noticed the twins, the dog and the puppy standing in the smoke ahead of them. Then all four koalas (well, five if you counted Mrs K’s baby) stopped dead.

  They will be dead soon, Jordan thought, if they don’t turn around and go back to the gate.

  ‘What are we going to do?’ whispered Harry.

  ‘Hold the dogs, Agent H,’ Jordan said softly. ‘I’ll see if I can make them turn around.’

  ‘Don’t spook them, Agent J,’ Harry warned. ‘They’ll climb up the fence if they panic.’

  ‘I know. I won’t make any fast moves.’

  Harry stayed with Myrtle and Tink, while Jordan walked slowly towards the koalas. His arms were spread to shoo them back the other way, but he kept his mouth shut.

  Five pairs of eyes watched him getting closer. The koalas looked nervous. Jordan felt nervous, too. It was hard to walk slowly and not make any fast moves when a bushfire was coming.

  The smoke was getting really thick and the air was growing hotter. Jordan could hear lots of sirens in the distance.

  There was another sound, too – a faint roar that sounded like the ocean.

  Then Jordan heard something else.

  ‘Grunt!’

  It was Mrs K. Jordan had come too close to her and her baby. He froze and held his breath, hoping she would turn around and go back towards the gate.

  Jordan didn’t get his wish. Mrs K did turn around, but instead of going back towards the gate, she went scrambling up the fence with her baby on her back. The koala behind her climbed the fence, too. The other two raced up a tree.

  ‘Doh!’ said Jordan, looking up at all the spooked koalas. ‘I was only trying to help you guys!’

  Harry came walking up behind him, leading Myrtle and Tink. ‘You tried your best, Agent J.’

  Jordan rubbed his eyes and blinked. Things were moving in the forest. It was more koalas. Three adults and a half-grown one came trotting out of the trees. They stopped when they reached the fence and looked at the wire.

  ‘Quick, get out of sight!’ whispered Jordan, grabbing one of the dog leads from Harry. ‘They’ll panic if they see us.’

>   The twins led Myrtle and Tink into a patch of long grass. They lay down and spied on the koalas. After checking out the wire, the koalas set off along the fence, searching for a way through. Two went one way (towards the gate), and three went the other way (away from it).

  ‘Well, two of them might get out,’ Harry whispered.

  ‘Shhhhh!’ said Jordan. ‘I think another one’s coming.’

  Something was moving through the long grass behind them. They could see the tops of the grass swaying. Suddenly the stems parted and a brown, scaly head appeared. Behind it came a long scaly body.

  ‘Shishkebab!’ cried Jordan.

  It was a monster brown snake – even bigger than the one they’d seen before – and it was slithering straight towards them.

  Fast!

  9

  FLAMES

  Jordan had never moved so quickly. He leapt to his feet and jumped to one side.

  Harry jumped the other way.

  The snake shot between them like a long, wiggly arrow. It went straight through the fence.

  ‘Awesome!’ said Harry, watching the long, brown reptile go weaving off through the scrub towards the river. ‘It was nearly three metres long!’

  He turned and looked for his brother.

  Jordan was twenty metres away, going flat-out in the other direction.

  ‘You can stop running,’ Harry called. ‘It’s gone.’

  Jordan stopped and turned around.

  ‘Are you sure?’ he asked.

  ‘Yeah. It’s probably halfway to the river by now.’

  Jordan came walking back. His legs were trembling. ‘Where are the dogs?’ he asked.

  They had both let go of the dog leads when the snake surprised them. Now there was no sign of Myrtle or Tink. But there were lots of koalas – twice as many as before. Some were watching the twins. Others were trying to figure out how to get through the fence.

  ‘MYRTLE!’ yelled Harry.

  ‘TINK!’ yelled Jordan.

  Myrtle came creeping out of some bushes, trailing her leash.

  Tink wasn’t with her.

  ‘TINK!’ yelled the twins. ‘TINKERBELLLL!’

  The puppy didn’t come. Jordan and Harry looked in both directions. Where had Tink got to?

  Harry picked up Myrtle’s leash. ‘Find Tinkerbell, Agent M,’ he said.

  Myrtle sniffed the ground and wagged her tail. She led Harry to the fence, then turned to the right. Jordan went to get the FoxPack.

  ‘Harry, we’re going the wrong way!’ Jordan cried, running after his brother and Myrtle. ‘The gate’s back there!’

  ‘We’ve got to find Tink,’ Harry said.

  He was right. Jordan and Harry had taken the Mission Fox Official Oath. They couldn’t leave Tink in the koala sanctuary when a bushfire was coming.

  But what if we all get trapped? Jordan wondered.

  The smoke was really thick now. Bits of ash floated down like black snowflakes, turning everything the colour of soot. Lizards, frogs, native mice and other little animals went scuttling through the fence. Birds, bats and flying insects flew over it. All of them were getting away from the bushfire. But not the koalas. They couldn’t get through the fence and they couldn’t fly. Some tried to climb over, but they couldn’t get past the spiky wire at the top.

  They were all trapped.

  And the fire was getting closer.

  ‘Can you hear that noise?’ Harry asked.

  Jordan nodded. It sounded like the ocean, but it wasn’t.

  It was flames.

  10

  SPECIAL AGENT T

  Zzzz! Zzzz! Zzzz! Zzzz!

  Jordan stopped. The new noise was coming from his pocket. He reached in and pulled out the FoxPhone.

  ‘Mission Fox Animal Rescue Service,’ he said. ‘Is an animal in danger, or have you lost your pet?’

  Luckily, it wasn’t someone who needed Mission Fox’s help (they were a bit busy right now). It was Rachael from Wildlife Rescue, returning Jordan’s call.

  ‘Where are you?’ she asked.

  ‘Harry and I are in the koala sanctuary,’ Jordan told her. ‘We need someone to help us rescue the koalas.’

  ‘YOU AND HARRY GET OUT OF THERE RIGHT NOW!’ Rachael shrieked in his ear. ‘THE BUSHFIRE IS HEADING STRAIGHT TOWARDS YOU!’

  ‘But the koalas can’t get out,’ Jordan said.

  ‘FORGET THE KOALAS!’ screamed Rachael. ‘SAVE YOURSELVES!’

  Jordan shut the phone. There wasn’t time to argue. Besides, Rachael didn’t know about Tink.

  ‘There she is!’ cried Harry.

  Jordan peered through the swirling smoke. A small black and white shape flashed between two trees, dragging a length of rope behind it. Then it shot back the other way.

  It was Tink. She seemed to be running in circles.

  ‘What’s she doing?’ asked Jordan.

  ‘It looks like she’s chasing the end of the rope,’ Harry said. ‘Like a kitten chasing its tail.’

  Jordan went a bit closer. ‘She’s not chasing the rope,’ he said, ‘she’s chasing ducklings!’

  There were ten of them. They must have come from the duck pond in the middle of the sanctuary. Tink was running around them in circles, trailing the rope behind her.

  When they saw the Mission Fox agents coming, two of the ducklings tried to run away. They didn’t get far. Tink chased them back to join their eight brothers and sisters. Then all ten ducklings huddled together in a fluffy, brown-and-yellow group as Tink ran round and round them.

  ‘Leave them alone, Tink!’ cried Harry, hurrying forward with Myrtle.

  ‘Wait!’ said Jordan. ‘Don’t scare them, Agent H.’

  Harry looked over his shoulder. ‘But Tink’s already scaring them!’

  ‘No she isn’t,’ Jordan said. ‘She’s rounding them up.’

  Tink was a border collie. Jordan had read about them on BRAIN, a special app on the FoxPhone that had nearly 23 million facts about animals and wildlife. BRAIN said that border collies were bred to round up sheep. It’s what they loved to do more than anything else in the world. But when there weren’t any sheep, they looked for other things to round up.

  Even ducklings would do.

  Keeping the ducklings in a tight group, Tink began driving them slowly towards the fence. On the other side was a big brown duck. It was their mother. She must have flown over the fence to escape the bushfire, but her ducklings couldn’t follow her because they were too young to fly.

  ‘Quack! Quack! Quack!’ she called.

  All ten duckings raced forward. But they couldn’t get through the fence. They were trapped in the sanctuary, like the koalas.

  ‘Get the FoxNet,’ Harry said. ‘We’ll catch them and take them with us.’

  The FoxNet was an old butterfly net the twins used for catching small creatures like mice, insects and frogs that needed to be rescued. They could take it apart and put it in the FoxPack. Jordan pulled out the two bits, then he and Harry started screwing them together.

  While the twins were busy, Tink began herding the ducklings along the fence. But she was taking them in the wrong direction.

  ‘Hey!’ said Jordan. ‘The gate’s the other way, Tink!’

  But the little border collie had other plans. She kept shooing the ducklings along the fence away from the gate. The mother duck waddled along next to them on the other side of the wire.

  Jordan decided to give his superpower another try.

  ‘Bring the ducklings back this way, Tink,’ he mind-whispered.

  For a moment, the puppy seemed to hesitate. She glanced back over her shoulder at Jordan, as if she had heard him. But then she kept going, driving the ducklings ahead of her along the fenceline.

  Jordan heaved a big sigh. He was nine now – too old to pretend he could talk to animals.

  At last the FoxNet was ready. Harry raised it and went running after Tink and the ducklings. Then he stopped in his tracks.

  Jordan caught up with him. ‘What’s th
e matter, Agent H?’

  Harry pointed.

  The puppy and the ducklings had reached a place where there were lots of holes in the ground. It was the rabbit warren where the twins had found Tink the first time.

  Where there was a hole under the fence!

  Tink herded the ducklings to the hole, then chased them through to join their mother on the other side. She was a really smart puppy!

  As soon as all ten ducklings were safely out of the sanctuary, the mother duck led them off through the bushes towards the river.

  ‘Yaaay!’ cried Harry. He gave Jordan the secret MF high ten. ‘What do you reckon, Agent J? Shall we make Tink an honorary Mission Fox agent?’

  Jordan nodded. ‘Good idea, Agent H.’

  They each gave the puppy the secret MF head pat.

  ‘Well done, Special Agent T!’ they said.

  11

  TRAPPED

  Jordan picked up Tink’s lead. Harry grabbed Myrtle’s.

  ‘Let’s get out of here, Agent H!’

  ‘You bet, Agent J!’

  All four of them started running back along the fenceline towards the gate. There was so much smoke they could only see a few metres ahead of them.

  Jordan nearly tripped on something. It was a koala. It let out a grunt of surprise and went charging back into the forest – away from Jordan, but towards the approaching bushfire!

  ‘Harry, wait!’ Jordan cried.

  Harry had seen the koala, too. But he grabbed his brother’s arm and gave it a tug. ‘Come on, Jordan. The fire’s really close.’

  ‘But, the koalas . . .’ said Jordan.

  A big tear rolled down his cheek.

  ‘We can’t save the koalas, Agent J,’ Harry said sadly. ‘We already tried.’

  There were tears in Harry’s eyes, too. They had both taken the Mission Fox Official Oath, but there was nothing they could do to save the koalas now.

  For the first time ever, Mission Fox had failed.