And they ran!
Dot had never run so fast in her life!
Behind them, she could hear the angry snarling sound of hundreds of cyber rats out to get them – it was getting louder and louder, because although Wizzy’s waggy tail had speeded up the waking of the cyber rats, they still weren’t quite unfrozen – so they were running like you do if you have to run for a bus when you’ve just woken up, with your legs kind of tripping over each other and your knees all wobbly.
But the rats were coming after them all right.
And that silly song was nearly as loud as before again!!
“Come on, keep up!” yelled Cruncher, turning round to grin at them all. “Not far now!”
It wasn’t – they could see the bikes, down the far end of the cave – but it felt like for ever. Dot’s heart was going thud, thud, thud as she ran – she wondered if the others felt the same, though Wiz was already ahead of all of them on his four legs, and Carvelia and Thoranon, the Children of the Casement, seemed to be gliding along as if they were on wheels.
She looked down. They were on wheels! Four little pairs of silver wheels had come out of each side of their shoes, two on each side – and they just had to push like on roller skates to go along. Not FAIR!!
As she watched, they came up on either side of Drindel Zildith, who
was puffing and blowing and falling behind - and lifted him up, each holding one elbow. Drindel gave a little gasp of surprise as his feet left the floor of the cavern – but then they were gliding along together, the three of them moving as fast as ever.
“Get them! GET - THEM!” came a horse shout from behind. It was Mr Fruity – as Dot looked back, she saw his face, red with rage.
“We’re going to die!” squeaked Mr Mouse, burrowing as far down as he could go under the shoulder of Dot’s T-shirt.
Oh no they weren’t – because now at last they were in the bike park.
But there were hundreds of bikes, all jumbled up together in a typical
cyber rat mess – lots of rats had come in after they’d all arrived, and parked all round Cruncher’s bike. How on EARTH were they going to find it - and Mr Fruity’s too!
But Cruncher knew what to do. He skidded to a halt and took out something that looked a bit like a very old fashioned TV remote control, and pressed two buttons.
RRRRMMMM! RRRMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!
It was the sound of the cyber-bikes starting up - all of them!!
What was he doing!!
Cruncher hit another button and two of the bikes rose up in the air – just half a metre or so.
But surely it was too late! The cyber rats were nearly on them – just metres away! Wizzie was standing with his back to the bikes, tail down, snarling and growling, Carvelia and Thoranon were getting ready to fight too – they’d taken up a position a bit like the karate champion who’d come to Dot’s school once.
Even Drindel had his fists up, looking like an old-fashioned boxer!
Cruncher grinned. He was certainly one cool dude!
“Stand still and watch this!” he said. He swept his remote control thing round in a big circle over all the bikes.
And off they went – straight towards the cyber rats!!
All except the two that had gone up in the air, that is!
It was CHAOS!!
It reminded Dot of something she’d seen on TV once – a big speedway race, where those special motorbikes go round and round a track, very fast and all leaning over very close together. Sometimes – ouch! – they all run into each other, and there’s a big pile-up and all the bikes and their riders fall over. There was a big one the day Dot was watching.
Well, that pile-up looked like two five-year olds falling off their trikes in the children’s playground in the park compared to this one.
Everywhere you looked, there were cyber rats tumbling over each other, shouting and cursing, legs in the air, helmets flying off, bikes still roaring about with their engines going, wheels spinning, some cyber rats scrambling to their feet only to get knocked over again – because the funny thing was, the cyber-bikes all seemed to be going round in circles.
The cyber rats just couldn’t get away from them – it was as if their own bikes were rounding them up like cowboys used to round up their herds in the Wild West of America!
Except you wouldn’t have had the deafening nose of hundreds of motorbike engines and the shouting and screaming of the cyber rats back then, of course!
Cruncher laughed out loud. Then he pointed his remote control upwards and the two bikes that had been hovering in the air came back down with a gentle bump.
One was really flashy – all chrome, with leather fringes all the way round and a big seat with a back rest and a big red box behind with ‘MR FRUITY – KING OF THE CYBER RATS’ on it in gold lettering.
The other was Cruncher’s – a bit more battered but still gleaming with its shiny black paint and its chromium wheels.
Cruncher bowed. “Hop on!” he said to Drindel, Carvelia and Thoranon.
“But… but… who’s going to drive Mr Fruity’s bike?” stuttered Dot.
Cruncher winked at her. “YOU are!” he laughed.
