John stared in horror at the approaching zeppelin. But before he could open his mouth to say anything, Pete grabbed his arm. 'Come on kid, lets get you somewhere safe.' He stood up, and half dragged John into the cabin.1
Once in, he let go of John, and knelt on the floor, running his hand along one of the floor boards. There was a click, a section of the deck popped up.2
John stared in surprise at the trap door, he'd never imagined that there'd be more then the little door he'd found for the engine. 3
Pete lifted the door up, and walking down, motioned John to follow him.4
The sight that met John's eyes left him dumbfounded. A huge room, at least twice times the size of Bootle, from the deck, not from outside looking at it. It was filled with two of the most complicated looking machines John had ever seen. One stood on either side of the room.5
Pete lead him down the steps and through the hallway of towering machines.6
'What are they?' asked John in awe.7
'The things that make Bootle go real fast,' said Pete, as they came to a door that was dwarfed by the two towers. 'In here,' he said, opening the door.8
John stepped through the door. 'How will I know when its safe to come out?' there was a note of worry on his voice.9
'When I come and get you. There is loads of food in here, and water. So you'll be fine for quite some time.' Pete turned to leave.10
'But what if you get... Killed?' John asked nervously.11
Pete stood in silence a moment, before he sighed and said, 'Stay here till the food runs out. If I, or someone else, hasn't come down, then come out. The door is easy to open from below, there's a handle, just twist,' so saying, Pete closed the door.12
John could hear the sound of his retreating footsteps. Then nothing.13
The room was eerily quiet, it was also dark. John groped around till his hand felt a switch, he flicked it, a single light on the ceiling, three metres above him, blinked to life.14
He stared around the room, taking everything in. It was a storage room by the look of it. Boxes stacked on top of each other against the wall, with mesh clipped in front of them to stop them falling. There was also a large container, with the word: WATER stencilled on the side.15
John whistled and muttered to himself, 'He wasn't joking when he said I'd be fine for quite some time...'16
Back on deck things were rather hectic. Baldwin was sitting on the deck mumbling something about why had he ever let them off that zeppelin, none of this would have happened if he hadn't.17
Ericsson was dashing around the deck like a mad thing shouting about how much fun he was having.18
Charles was staring at the oncoming zeppelin, with a puzzled look on his face, well muttering, 'What went wrong?' over and over again.19
Pete stepped out of the cabin, and onto the deck. 'Good grief, I leave you alone for a few minutes and you all degenerate to a bunch of brainless kids? Good grief...' He strode over to Charles, and grabbing him by his top yanked him to his feet, and spun him to face himself. 'Snap out of it Pigeon, if we is going to get anything done, we need to work together. That goes for the rest of you as well!' he snapped.20
The puzzled look on Charles face changed to a blank one, and a second later am evil smile spread over it. 'Oh, so you finally admit you need me?'21
Pete rolled his eyes and letting go of Charles top, growled, 'If I didn't need you, I would give you a set of nice black eyes.'22
'I bet you would,' said Charles, then hastily added, 'So what do you need us to do?'23
'Hmm, I was thinkin–'24
'Ahh, look behind you...'25
Pete spun, and his mouth dropped, the zeppelin was right behind them, it had somehow managed to catch up with the unmoving bathtub.26
'Well, it was nice knowing you,' said Charles miserably.27
Pete's face hardened. 'We ain't dead yet.'28
Charles looked at Pete in a strange manner. 'I'm sorry, but there is an attack zeppelin a few feet away from us, about to blow us to pieces, am I missing something?'29
'Aye, that you are,' said Pete grinning wickedly.30
'I am?' Charles looked surprised.31
'Aye, did you not see our aid?'32
Charles looked over Pete shoulder at the zeppelin, suddenly, he saw a movement out of the corner of his eye, spinning to see what it was. 'Dang, I did miss something...'33
Apparently all aboard the zeppelin had just seen what they'd also missed. There was the sound of propellers revving loudly, but the zeppelin was just to damaged to move in time.34
Crunch!35
One moment there was a zeppelin hovering in the air, next there was a zeppelin being smashed under the bows of a ship going top speed.36
The zeppelin didn't stand a chance, Le Charlottes mass combined with its speed was just to much, for the small airship. It smashed into the ocean, and with a sickening grinding noise Le Charlotte ploughed over it, leaving in it's wake nothing but smoking wreckage.37
'Whoa... That was... Unexpected...' Charles said slowly. 38
'Heh, only for one who didn't obey one of the first rules of being a sailor: Always keep yer eyes pealed.'39
'Yeah, yeah, yeah, rub it in, so I failed sailing school,' growled Charles.40
It was Pete's turn to look surprised. 'You failed sailing school? I didn't even know there was such a thing as sailing school.'41
'Sure there was, in my case it was answering a bundle of stupid questions about which end is the ships keel and stuff.'42
Pete frowned at him. 'You idiot, the keel isn't on any side of the ship.'43
'Yes it is, the bottom side, never heard of it?' asked Charles in mock incredibility.44
Pete's eyes narrowed some more. 'No...'45
'Well, you get topside, so there must be a bott– Ooof.'46
'You're a moron, you know that? Now I've broken my finger,' Pete said flatly. He turned his heel and strode into the cabin, to go let John out, now all was safe.47
'Doez he alvayz punch you like zat?' asked Baldwin curiously.48
'Mo. He uthally dobn't bweak hib inber,' said Charles holding his hand to his swollen lip. 'I hink he bwok my tooph.'49
'He doezn't uzually break hiz vat?' asked Baldwin, trying somewhat in vain to understand what Charles was saying.50
'Inber...Shinber... Bah!' Charles gave up and pointed to his finger, 'Ith thin.'51
'Ohhh, finger!' exclaimed Baldwin as the light dawned.52
'Ish! Donb you umberstanb Engwish?' asked Charles in annoyed tone.53
'Engviz?'54
'No no, Engwish, you mow the wangwuch whith you speap.'55
'I can't underztand a verd you are zaying...'56
'Nebber cam I!' shouted Charles, 'Amb I cam't unberstanb you!'57
Before either of them could break into a fight about not being able to understand each other Pete re-emerged from the cabin with John.58
John's eyes fell on Charles, who was still holding his hand to his mouth, trying to stop the blood flow. 'What happened to you?' he asked with concern.59
Before Charles could reply, Pete said, 'When the zeppelin was sucked under, something blew up, and a piece of it hit Charles, cut his lip.'60
Baldwin snickered. 'Vat? Afraid to tell zee kid zat you hit zee annoying little pi– Urk.'61
Charles hit him. 'I amb mot ammoyim!' he snarled. 62
'Ah, did I run over the wrong thing perhaps? As the fighting still seems to be continuing' a voice boomed through a loudspeaker.63
They all spun to look up at the cruise liner towering above them.64
'How the heck do you keep creeping up on us like that?' Pete bellowed up at him, annoyed that he hadn't seen the liner come to a semi-halt beside them.65
'It was easy, you lot were fighting so much you wouldn't have heard it if I came at you with the fog horn blaring,' replied the voice through the loudspeaker cheerfully. 'Now, do you want to come aboard or not? I have some guests who'd very much appreciate it if you would make all haste to board.'66
'Aye, haul us up with a crane or whatever!' Pete yelled up at him. Also eager to get aboard, and get someone to set his finger, which was swollen, and starting to throb painfully. 67
'Just wait there, you'll be aboard in no time.68
Four hours later they all sat around Doupree's private lounge, along with Douglas and Mary Rendrige. It had been a tearful reunion, with plenty of "I'm so sorry" from Douglas and Mary, followed by equal amounts of "It's Ok" from John.69
They now sat on a couch, John safely between them.70
Baldwin and Charles were sitting as far away from each other as they could get, and there were plenty of dirty stares exchanged. Both had rather swollen lips, and Baldwin's talking was even harder to understand then it was before.71
Pete sat next to Ericsson on one sofa, well Doupree sat in his own private chair, which he had kicked Charles out of, which had made Charles even more annoyed with life in general.72
They had just finished recounting there tale. With much expanding on facts by John and Charles.73
'Well, that sounds like quite a... Likely story,' said Douglas, somewhat sceptically once they had finished.74
Pete's eyes narrowed. 'You don't believe it?'75
'Well, I didn't say that...' Douglas said, looking slightly embarrassed under Pete's gaze.76
'No, but that's what you meant isn't it?'77
'Now now kids, no need to fight, I'm sure Pete would be happy to show you inside his bathtub if you don't believe him. Won't you Pete?' said Doupree slowly, curious to see inside the bathtub himself. Pete had made them take it straight to the room in which he would be staying, and had locked the door, refusing to let anyone in.78
Pete frowned at him. 'I don't have to show anyone in Bootle if I don't want.'79
'Oh please Pete? They'll never believe me if you don't,' said John pleadingly.80
Pete stared at him a long moment, well everyone else waited with baited breath for his reply. It came at last, 'Alright, if you must, but only you people, I'll have no one else one else pestering me to see inside.'81
'Fine. Everyone give their word not to tell anyone else?' asked Doupree.82
There was a chorus of; sure, yep, you have my word, mo pwobwem, I neber zay zimbs zaap I'm mot vampeed too.83
Pete nodded slowly before standing and walking swiftly from the room.84
Everyone else jumped up and hastily followed him. 85
Inside Pete room, they stood around Bootle, staring at it and wondering how it got bigger when you stepped in it.86
Douglas had decided that it was probably just a joke, but from Pete's attitude he wasn't quite so sure. 87
Pete stepped into Bootle.88
Everyone stared at him, he looked just like someone standing in a bathtub, Douglas was quick to point that out. 'What happened? I thought you said it was bigger on the inside.'89
'I did say so, now get in,' Pete told him darkly.90
Douglas shrugged, and stepped in. His face changed from one of mild scepticism to shock.91
'You were saying?' asked Pete dryly.92
'See I told you so!' said John gleefully.93
'What happened?' asked Mary, looking somewhat concerned by Douglas's look.94
Douglas opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out, he just stood dumfounded.95
'You want to see what he sees?' asked Pete.96
Mary looked doubtful.97
'Go on mum, you know you'll forever regret it if you don't,' said John, giving her a slight push.98
She reluctantly stepped into the tub, and promptly fainted.99
This snapped Douglas out of his shock and he jerked to grab Mary before she fell, and lowered to the deck.100
To everyone else standing outside the tub, it looked strange, if asked later what it looked like, they wouldn't have been able to tell you, their brains telling them what their eyes said was happening. The end result was something akin to a migraine. So they all looked away. 101
Pete stared at them. 'See why I don't like showing people Bootle, they start going funny. But well we're at it, are you getting in or not Doupree?'102
Doupree's headache cleared quickly when he wasn't staring at Bootle, so he avoided looking at it as he got in. Once in, his expression matched that of Douglas's when he first got in. Except for one small detail, which John saw, and did not like. Doupree's eyes glinted with an unpleasant light as he gazed around him.103
'See? Nothing fancy, just seems a little bigger inside then out,' said Pete, 'Now out.' He ushered them out, helping Douglas get Mary to her feet, she was just starting to come round again. 104
Once they were all outside the tub again, they filed out of the room, Mary leaning on Douglas's shoulder, a dazed look on her face.105
Doupree's face held a look of wonder. He smiled when he caught John staring at him, 'Seems that you were telling the truth eh?'106
John's eyes narrowed slightly. 'Yes, it would seem so wouldn't it.'107
'Well, I think it's high time for a nice hearty meal, one without any spam,' said Doupree, ignoring John's suspicious gaze.108
'Ooo, mo zpam,' Baldwin's expression was one of pure bliss, the thought of a meal without spam was a thought he treasured after many years of being made to eat spam to stay on the good side Sir Eric.109
Doupree grinned at him, 'Unless of course you wish to have spam?'110
Baldwin's expression changed quickly to one that said that if anyone tried to make him eat spam they'd hurt, and hurt bad.111
Doupree laughed, 'I jest, I wouldn't make anyone eat spam, only the crazy eat it out of preference.' He lead them all to the dinning room.
Author notes
Chapter 17.
Adding your comment:
