‘Can we confirm the north terminal?’ the police officer said again, his voice bubbling with frustration.
‘No, I think they’re in the south terminal,’ another voice cut over the rest.
Realising that no one had the faintest idea of where the hostiles were or what was going on, the fleet of armored police vehicles split. One squad headed for the south terminal and the other headed to the north, their sirens and lights blazing as they hurtled along the runway.
All around them, people dived out of their way as they raced through the terminal. Screams of terror could be heard in all directions as William howled through fear and confusion rather than to scare the passengers. William had never seen a place like this. Everything was so garish and lit with neon lights. The floor and walls looked artificial as if made from some shiny material and his snout was bombarded with the smell of cheap meat and sweet-things.
Fluttering overhead, Neanna beat her wings, throwing-up abandoned newspapers and hamburger wrappers. Seeing the sign for customs ahead of him, Zach realised that this was the way out. He doubted very much if he would be asked if he had anything to declare, but then again, he wondered what the punishment would be for trying to smuggle a werewolf and a vampire into the UK.
The custom officers in their crisp, white shirts and starched trousers heard the screaming before they even saw the boy, the wolf and the giant bat-thing. Their radios had been humming with news of them for the last ten minutes and some officers had wondered if it were not some kind of joke. But as Zach raced through the customs area followed by the biggest wolf and bat they had ever seen, they all dived for cover beneath the x-ray machines and search tables.
Zach raced towards passport control. The area looked pretty void of life except for a few border control officers who sat in little glass booths.
Border Control officer Tom Smith shouldn’t have even been working that day. It was Christmas week and he had been on leave, but when his supervisor had called him at home and offered him ‘double-bubble’ overtime to cover a colleague who had gone sick, he had been unable to refuse. However, when he saw the giant wolf come bounding towards his little booth, he wished he had never answered the phone to his supervisor.
He can stick the money! he thought to himself, pulling down the blind on his booth and curling up in the corner. Through his fingers, he watched the shadow of the wolf go bounding past and a large black shape go streaking overhead. To his shame, Border Control officer Tom Smith felt a damp patch form in his trousers. In that moment, he vowed that he would never answer his phone while on leave again.
Zach and his two odd looking friends tore through the terminal.
Where now? Zach thought to himself, looking around. He knew that they would have to get far away from the airport and quick. Spotting a sign for the ‘Gatwick Express’, Zach roared at William and Neanna to follow him.
Racing down the escalators two at a time, Neanna hovered behind him. Zach reached the platform to find a train waiting in the station. Looking up at the departure board, Zach could see that it was destined for London Victoria. Landing on the platform, Zach watched as Neanna shrugged her shoulders again and her wings folded away like the soft-top-roof on a sports car.
‘You’re getting good at that,’ he told her, boarding the train.
Ignoring him, Neanna said, ‘where’s William?’
Zach looked along the platform but couldn’t see William anywhere. He then heard a pitiful yelping sound come from the top of the escalators. Following the sound, Zach looked up to see William cowering at the top.
‘What’s wrong?’ he asked the oversized wolf.
‘I’m scared,’ William whimpered.
‘Scared? Scared of what?’Zach asked.
‘I’ve never seen moving stairs before.’
‘I don’t believe this,’ Zach sighed under his breath, making his way back to the top.
Taking hold of the fur around William’s neck, Zach tried to pull him down the escalators. Below he could hear the ‘bleeping’ sound as the doors of the train prepared to close.
‘C’mon you big hairy coward,’ Zach screamed at him. ‘We don’t have time for your fun and games!’
Working his way behind William, he placed both of his hands against the wolf’s huge back legs and began to force him down the escalators. Howling, William skittered on his long claws, lost his grip and tumbled to the bottom. Jumping over him, Zach darted between the closing doors of the train. Sticking out his arms between them, he fought to keep the doors from closing.
‘C’mon!’ he yelled at William, who lay looking dazed and confused in a heap at the foot of the escalators.
The doors ‘beeped’ as they struggled to close.
‘William, please!’ Neanna said.
Shaking his large head, William rolled onto all fours and leapt towards the closing doors. Zach stooped as William bounded over him and into the carriage. Releasing his grip on the doors, Zach lept backwards as they hissed shut. Then the screaming started all over again.
Zach raced up the carriage as people curled up in their seats desperate to keep out of the way of the massive wolf-thing. The train listed from side to side as it sped over points and raced towards London.
The three of them ran through the carriages until they reached the first class compartment at the front of the train. This carriage was quieter and occupied by just one passenger who lay slumped asleep in one corner listening to his ipod.
‘It’s not going to take them long to figure out what happened to us,’ Zach told William and Neanna.
‘How will they know the way we are heading?’ William barked.
‘CCTV! That’s how!’ Zach snapped, peering out of the train windows into the darkness.
‘CCTV?’ Neanna asked, gripping the handrail as the train lurched this way and that.
‘Yeah, they’re cameras that watch everything you do,’ he said, sensing neither William nor Neanna had the slightest idea of what he was going on about. ‘They’re kinda like mechanical eyes that watch what’s going on. It’s for security. It makes people feel safer. But then again, it just makes you feel like you’re being spied on!’
‘Mechanical eyes,’ Neanna gasped. ‘And I thought Endra was full of magic.’
‘It’s not magic,’ Zach said.
‘Can I take some of these magical eyes back to Endra for my dad?’ William asked.
‘No you can’t! They’re not magical and they don’t work like that,’ Zach said, peering out of the window again.
‘What do you keep looking for?’ Neanna asked.
‘I want to see if we are slowing down…to see if they’ve worked out what has happened to us. They might stop the train and then we’ll be trapped.’
‘What sort of beast pulls this train?’ William asked.
Rolling his eyes, Zach gasped, ‘look nothing is pulling this train. It doesn’t work like that. We haven’t used animals to pull vehicles for years!’
‘So how does this huge beast move at such an incredible speed?’ William pushed.
‘It’s not a beast!’ Zach cried exasperated. ‘It’s a machine like the big flying bird we were on. It has an engine!’
Zach didn’t mean to lose his temper with William, and deep in his heart he understood what William and Neanna were going through. They were just as confused and bewildered by this strange new world as he had been when stepping through the doorway into Endra. But now wasn’t the time for questions. Just like the time hadn’t been right for the questions he had pestered William with as they had raced towards the Howling Forests on the stagecoach. Looking at the world through William’s and Neanna’s eyes, Zach guessed that Earth was just as magical as Endra. It was a different kind of magic that was all.
‘Can I take one of these engines home?’ William began, ‘they sound incredible. What do you feed them on?’
Zach put a finger to his lips. ‘Shhh! We’re slowing down!’
The train gave off a hissing sound as the driver applied the brakes and the train slowed. Pressing his hands against the windows, Zach tried to see what was happening ahead. To his relief, he could see the lights and the many platforms of Victoria railway station.
The train rolled to a halt and Zach went and stood by the doors. As soon as they had parted, Zach peered along the platform expecting to see it teaming with Transport Police, but there was no one.
Stepping onto the deserted platform, Zach ushered his two friends to join him, leaving the sleeping passenger unaware that he had just taken a ride with a werewolf and a vampire.
‘Something isn’t right,’ Zach whispered.
‘What do you mean?’ Neanna asked, doing that thing with her shoulders again and releasing her wings.
‘This is a busy commuter station in the heart of our biggest city. It should be teaming with people and look; no one else has got off the train.’
‘Maybe they know something we don’t,’ William barked.
‘That’s what worries me,’ Zach said, leading them onto the huge desolate concourse.
‘We should keep to the sides,’ Neanna whispered.
‘Why?’ Zach asked her.
‘We’re less easily seen that way.’
Following her instructions, the three of them made their way around the edges of the concourse pressed against the shop windows. They had made it about halfway round when somebody shouted at them through a loudhailer.
‘THIS IS THE POLICE. STAY WHERE YOU ARE!’ the voice commanded, echoing off the floor and walls of the station. ‘PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR SO WE CAN SEE THEM!’
William looked down at his paws and then at Zach. ‘These cops of yours are far too dumb to be peacekeepers.’
There was a moments silence then the voice came again.
‘MOVE INTO THE CENTRE OF THE STATION CONCOURSE. KEEP YOUR HANDS WHERE WE CAN SEE THEM. ANY PERCIEVED HOSTILITY WILL BE MET WITH LETHAL FORCE!’
‘Neanna can’t you blink your way out of this?’ Zach asked.