The Omega Children - The Return of the Marauders (A young adult fiction best seller): An Action Adventure Mystery (36 page)

High above, a cover squeaked open, revealing a square grate. Daylight flooded in illuminating the large cavern they stood in, showing it only had one entrance.

Mohg appeared at the entrance.

‘Boo,’ he said grinning. ‘No wheres to run. Only ‘ere to stay. Okay boys let em ‘ave it.’

Mohg’s two dim-witted cronies appeared holding hoses. With bony, protruding eyebrows, they smiled; drooling at Mohg’s command, clearly unintelligent. They turned their hoses on full bore, and rushing water gushed out smacking into Melaleuca’s and Lexington’s face.

Ari and Quixote dived to one side, rolling away. They sprung to their feet in time to see the girls sprawling in the mud, sliding backwards, only stopping when the pressure pinned them against the wall.

Ari charged at the dim-wits letting forth a roaring sound to give him more courage. Mohg screamed with delight, slapping his belly with laughter. The dim-wits turned both their hoses onto Ari, knocking him clear off his feet. Lexington, dazed, clawed at the cavern’s rocky wall trying to stand up. Melaleuca shook her head trying to clear her now red eyes. She squinted through them, watching Ari take another watery pasting. Quixote pushed his body hard against a dark area of the wall, moving cat-like around the outside. Melaleuca knew she had to distract the dim-wits from discovering him.

‘AAAAAAAHHHH!’ Melaleuca screamed, and ran splodging through the mud.

They turned the hose on Melaleuca again. Ari caught his balance, stood, and charged again.

‘Both of them, watch, c'mon,’ Mohg yelled.

Quixote crept ever closer.

‘ ‘Ere. Where’d da little one go.’

Lexington stood, bedraggled, holding the cavern wall. Seeing the other two providing distraction for Quixote, and Mohg searching for him, she stretched her arms out and made a soft growling noise, trying to look threatening.

‘Get ‘er,’ Mohg yelled.

Again a torrent of water threw Lexington against the wall. She fell and the stream of water ripped away some of the side. She threw her arms up to protect herself and saw colours flash in the wall, but then disappeared as more water hit it.

‘Eh. What’s dat?’ Mohg said, spying something out of the corner of his eye. He swivelled his head, staring into the darkness.

‘Ahhh, fink I wouldn't see ya. I lives in darkness, I can see in darkness.’ He grabbed one of the dim-wits by the scuff of his neck and turned him to face Quixote. ‘Let em ‘ave it. ‘Let em all ‘ave it.’

The hoses danced between them, spraying watery machine-gun bullets. Again and again the cousins launched themselves at their attackers only to have their frontal assaults devastated.

Minutes later Mohg called a halt to the hoses.

‘ ‘ow was dat for ya first time?’ Mohg asked with a genuine concern.

Like mud creatures rising from a muddy earth-womb, the four of them shloped their bodies up out of the muddy cavern floor.

‘Is everyone okay?’ Ari asked, first to his feet.

Lexington said, ‘I'm fine. I think’

‘I'm good,’ Melaleuca said.

Quixote said nothing. He wiggled his feet about realising how much fun he could have. He ran a short way, slid on to his feet, and then on to his backside.

Melaleuca scraped the mud out of her eyes.

‘For a first time! What happens on the second?’

‘Gets worse,’ Mohg said. ‘C’mon. Just a bit o fun. No ones ‘urt. And believes me ‘urts ‘appens ‘ere lots.’

Quixote squealed with delight as he started throwing his body around in the mud.

‘Mud fight!’

Mohg cried out in enjoyment.

‘Dat's it, da little ones got the idea, get right into it. As me old man used to say, don’t do nuffink by ‘alves.’

‘If no one is hurt, then fine,’ Melaleuca said.

‘Comes out and I wills get a nice ‘ot tub of water to cleans ya.’ Mohg and the dim wits trotted back the way they had come.

Lexington wiped the mud off the back of the cavern, exposing soft clay. She started pulling at it, clawing it away, like a rabbit ripping into the ground.

‘What is it Lex?’ Melaleuca asked.

‘I saw something before...and yes...look.’ Her tone suggested another discovery.

Faded colours, like those on a comic left out in the rain, sat on a hard flat surface. They all joined in, ripping the clay away, until they revealed a heavy metal ring, the sort used on old heavy doors.

‘It’s a door,’ Lexington said.

‘OI!’ Mohg’s voice yelled from the tunnel. ‘Urry up. Maybe ya want another hosing. Ah ha ha ha ha.’

‘Dig faster,’ Ari said.

‘Leave it,’ Melaleuca said. ‘Stop before Mohg comes back.’

‘It’s an eagle,’ Quixote said. ‘Look, that’s its head and that’s its body.’

‘Cover it up,’ Melaleuca said. ‘We can come back another day. I bet there are deeper mysteries here than even these people know.’

Above them the grate started to slide shut.

‘Dis will get ja out!’

Darkness engulfed them.

They walked out through the tunnel, finding Mohg waiting for them, holding what could be loosely labelled as towels. His fat, flabby body glistened with perspiration.

‘Ere just to show ya dere’s no ‘ard feelings.’

He led them back through the caves, passing little grottos and all the barbaric instruments they had seen when running through here.

A warm cauldron of water had been prepared for them. Mohg let them strip and wash the mud off. As they did so, he told them it bought back memories of when he was younger. Soon they were mudless and warm, though wet.

Mohg directed them through to another little cave, where a small boulder sat in the middle. Grunting, he shoved it to one side revealing a deep dark hole. Hot air rushed up from it, filling the cave with warm air currents.

‘Don’t falls in. Some boy did and dat was dat.’

‘Where does it lead?’ Lexington asked.

Mohg shrugged his shoulders.

Within minutes their sack-cloth clothes and their undergarments dried. Quixote tried to peer into the hole but the air rushed by too quickly to see anything.

Lexington’s mind raced with ideas, her round eyes filling with questions and possibilities, though she felt frustrated as she needed a pen and paper to start writing things down.

As they headed back upstairs, none the worse for their detention, they saw a familiar figure coming towards them, Harshon. She shook her head and tut-tutted them.

‘Detention so soon. I think we need to chat.’

They followed her at a brisk pace, passing by several notices, hammered onto a large wooden board. A large white piece of paper with blood red letters emblazoned across it, stood out. Quixote paused and read it.

‘All children are hereby warned. Anyone caught being kidnapped will be severely punished. Anyone spotting anyone acting suspiciously near young children must report it or they will be severely punished. Any information provided that leads to the apprehension of the perpetrator will stand that student or students in good stead.’

Quixote motioned to Lexington.

‘Hey, check it out. Let’s use the costumes to solve this?’

Lexington pulled back and ran her eyes over it.

It would need logic and accurate note-taking, though she reminded herself she had lots of other places and things to investigate, and that yesterday’s finds had hardly been collated.

Quixote prodded her.

‘Well?’

They both heard Harshon say, ‘Ahem.’

‘Later,’ Lexington said.

They carried on following her to her office, a rather warm feeling room on the second level. It had some soft chairs and looked like something out of England in the 1800s.

‘Master Saurian told me what happened.’

‘That man is a butcher,’ Ari said

‘He is our top Discipliner.’

‘For what?’ Lexington said. ‘Whipping little boys.’

‘There is much to be done here for the sake of the world,’ Harshon said.

‘The world? How do you mean?’

She ignored the question, gazing out the window.

‘My role here is simple, to make sure all students fit in and know the rules and obey them. I am the first, last and only point of understanding. Beyond me there is nothing.’

‘We have never had such strict rules,’ Ari said.

‘They are simple.’ She rattled them off robot-like, losing her soft human tone. ‘Never speak unless spoken to. Do all that is asked of you. Never complain. Suffer and learn from it. Become morally strong. Stifle emotions.’

‘We made a promise to our mothers, that we would always be ourselves. These rules are rubbish,’ Melaleuca said.

‘Your mothers,’ Harshon said, miles away in thought. ‘I have been wondering.’ She pointed her question at Melaleuca. An uneasy edge crept into Harshon’s tone. ‘Your mother. Where was she from?’

‘From?’

‘Yes. Where was she born and raised?’

‘They never said. Why?’

‘They?’

‘My mother and their mothers were sisters, quadruplets.’

‘You look so much like a girl I used to know,’ Harshon said. ‘One that attended the Vahn.’

She knew Harshon referred to one of their mothers, especially as she was the only cousin to look similar.

‘Was your mother’s name Karena?’ Harshon asked.

Melaleuca shook her head.

‘Anyway,’ Harshon said. ‘You need to obey the rules.’

‘What happened to her? Karena?’ Lexington asked. This could be the key needed to solve everything.

Harshon’s eyes glistened and she appeared to struggle against rising sadness. She rose and looked out the window, hiding her attempts to regain her composure.

‘She did not make it,’ Harshon said.

‘Is she dead?’ Quixote asked.

‘She was sent to the southern wastelands I bet,’ Ari said.

Harshon nodded. ‘Yes. I’ve not seen her since.’

‘And you think she may have escaped to the outside world.’ Lexington added, intrigued, staring at the quill and paper on her desk wanting them.

Harshon shook her entire body, chanted some low words, and then turned. ‘Of course not, besides it was nearly thirty years ago.’

‘We may not understand your ways, but we are not stupid,’ Lexington said in a serene voice. ‘You are hiding something.’

Again the sadness surfaced on Harshon’s face.

‘What is it?’ Melaleuca asked.

The clean soft faces of the cousins possessed of an innocence no longer seen in the children of New Wakefield, beamed at Harshon.

‘You are in danger,’ Harshon said trying to control herself. ‘You threaten them. I can see it now. If this is all it takes to make people feel, then things will be worse for you than I have imagined.’

‘How are we in danger?’ Melaleuca said.

A look of great reluctance passed over her. After considering her thoughts she leaned forward and said, ‘New Wakefield people are very suspicious, especially of outsiders. A few days ago a local re-disciplining house in the upper valley was raided. Some say it was outsiders.’

‘What did these outsiders look like?’ Lexington asked.

‘Never mind. I am sure it is a coincidence. Just unfortunate that Matron Gertrude cleared the way for you to come to the Vahn at the same time.’

She stood, still struggling to regain her tranquil composure.

‘It was not always like this. New Wakefield has always been strict and enforced moral codes. But not this. It’s like the sun shines, but no heat gets through. My grandparents said it started changing after the outside world had a large, prolonged battle called World War I. But they would say no more til I was older. They died before telling me. It got worse when ─ ’

The horn that had sounded to let all the children in bellowed once again, shaking Harshon out of thinking about the past.

‘It’s break time, out into the Vahn yard. I will talk to you later.’

She crossed her office floor to open the door, and ushered them out.

***

The corridors filled up with children of various ages, and the cousins followed them outside. The throng led them to the far south gap of the Vahn. There the amphitheatre split open into a deep ravine about ten metres across. The ravine ran south for two hundred metres, stopping at a small dam. Beyond it lay a great lake, easily a mile across and a mile in length. A large field with well kept lawns ran beside it, and in the distance sat a three-storey, rundown building that looked like a college from Victorian England. Testifying to its vacant emptiness, smashed windows, missing chunks of roof, broken plaster, faded paint, and crumpled walls adorned it.

The cousins stood on a parapet on the edge of the field watching as the students filed onto the field. The older ones
gathered to talk, while some took younger children into small huddles. Some of the groups marched around with an older student yelling at them, while others no older than five got handed small leather straps and were shown how to whack themselves.