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Crazy World (9)
We walked fast towards the exit. Some of the people
in the market started to follow us. - Let's turn on them! Let's show them who's boss! We both turned round at once. Plummet took a step towards them. This felt like suicide to me, but I copied him and took a step towards the crowd.1 To my surprise, they stopped in their tracks. We all stood still, staring at each other. I took another step towards them and the ones at the front pushed back, away from me. They had fear in their eyes. I couldn't understand it, but then I realised—of course! They had all read the words in the newsflash—Wanted! Josef Serge—very dangerous! I laughed at this. It was nonsense. But they all believed it. I snarled at them, and the whole crowd backed away even further. Plummet whispered to me... - Don't push your luck2! They won't be afraid of you for long. We left the market and got to the river bank. The crowd crept3 carefully behind us. I stared into the river and wondered what to do. The water was clear today, and I could see the thick green mass of seaweed far below on the river-bed. The whole Thames river-bed is one long seaweed
farm. I don't like eating seaweed myself, but it's the main source of
green vegetables now. I watched the farmers tending their crop in their
small submarines.4 - That's our only escape!5 I understood him immediately and approached the farmer. He looked up at me and greeted me. - Afternoon. - Afternoon. - Can I help you? - Yes. I knocked him off his feet6 then stole his nerve gun out of his pocket. I pressed the nerve gun to his head. - You can start up that submarine. The three of us squeezed into the small submarine, and the frightened farmer closed the hatch. We dived down to the river-bed and travelled along it, heading east, towards the river-mouth. That should get me out of London, but then what?7 I had no idea. The seaweed farm went on for miles. I began to relax, but after a few miles, a row of bright lights came on, in front of us. Two police submarines were waiting for us. There was another one behind us, catching up. - You're on your own, Serge. Get out of here! - Plummet? What about you? - I'll be fine. There was a sub-aqua8
diving suit in the submarine. I put it on, and dived out of the bottom
of the sub. Up ahead, I spotted a small, dark hole in the river-bed. It was a narrow slit. I had no idea where it would lead, but I had no choice. I squeezed down into it. The hole was just big enough for me. I tunnelled down through the darkness for long time. Eventually, it opened out into a wide tunnel. By the light of my torch I could see a set of railway tracks running along the tunnel. I swam along the tunnel. After half a mile, I came to the wreck of an ancient Underground Train. I shined my torch into it, and saw dozens of skeletons. They were frozen in position, like statues. Their bony arms and hands appeared to be reaching out to me or banging on the window. I swam past the train and came to a station platform. It was deserted. I swam towards the exit sign and came to a stairway, that led up to the station entrance. I swam up the stairway, passing more skeletons on the rusted9 escalators. I emerged from the ancient Underground Station and found myself on the edge of London.10 A flat marshy landscape of toxic yellow chemicals stretched out in front of me. I had no idea how dangerous it would be out there, but I had to get away from the city. I ran out across the man-made chemical desert, heading for a cluster of abandoned buildings out in the middle. All around me, the ground glowed with an
evil, yellow light. I hoped no one would follow me out here to these
empty buildings—if they were empty. |
I
wanted to run, but Plummet held me back.