This is the first exclusive look at Beat Down - Episode 1 : Clones. In this section, our heroes are in hot pursuit of Kurt Sniveller, but are experiencing a few problems ....
‘Have some
schnapps,’ Cap’n Nerv said with a wide grin.
‘Thanks.’
Russell took a cup and drained it in one gulp. Almost immediately
they heard a rumbling from the ground below them. ‘Good God,
Captain,’ Russell exclaimed, ‘I think that stuff has given me the
trots.’
‘It’s not you,
Russ!’ Rip shouted, standing up. ‘It’s something below us!’
The earth began to
shake, and sand rushed to fill little cracks that appeared in the
ground. Russell had the sensation of being lifted up into the air. He
grabbed hold of a nearby rock.
‘It’s rising!’
Rip shouted as the whole area beneath them suddenly jerked upwards.
‘One o’ you lads
grab the schnapps!’ Cap’n Nerv shouted, as Bert flew off to perch
in the safety of a nearby tree, cackling, ‘Chav, chav!’ all the
while.
Rip managed to grab
the barrel under one arm as it rolled towards the edge of what now
revealed itself as a giant door. With the other he held on to the
trunk of a nearby sapling. Russell had climbed up as far as the
chalet, and was standing with his feet braced against the door frame
as the whole building rose into the air.
Beneath them they
heard a roaring sound, like a huge waterfall.
‘It’s a secret
entrance!’ Russell shouted. ‘That bounder Sniveller must have his
base underground!’
Below them, a flood
of water gushed out of the open entrance as their barbeque spot
became a gurgling river. The chalet continued to rise until they were
almost thirty metres in the air.
‘I can’t hold
on!’ Rip shouted. ‘That row really took it out of me!’
Russell looked
around for the others. Bert was frantically cawing, ‘Chav, chav!’
from a nearby tree. Cap’n Nerv had managed to hobble to high
ground, and now stood on a rock just above the rushing water. Rip was
hanging on to a tree poking out of the side of the huge door, with
the barrel of schnapps under his free arm. Back on the beach, Marny
was watching the whole scene unfold with a look of horror on his
face.
A huge shape
appeared from out of the opening, moving swiftly below them on the
now raging flood of water.
‘It’s the
whaling ship!’ Russell shouted. ‘They must going back to get more
sharks! What can the bounders be doing with them all?’
‘I . . . can’t .
. .’ Rip began, then Russell watched with dismay as the barrel fell
down into the raging waters in the ship’s wake.
‘The schnapps!’
the captain roared. ‘Save the schnapps, ye heathen coward!’
Rip’s face was a
picture of suffering. ‘I can’t –’
‘Yes, ye can!’
Then, with the
athleticism of a professional soccer player, Cap’n Nerv flicked up
a rock with his good leg and swung at it with the cricket bat
embedded into the stump of his other one. The ball struck the middle
of the bat and flew through the air like a bullet. With the accuracy
of a royal archer, the rock struck the top of Rip’s fingers.
‘Dammit!’ Rip
shouted, his fingers jerking and letting go. His legs flapped as he
hung comically in the air for a moment, then he plunged down into the
raging waters.
‘That’s it, me
hearty!’ Cap’n Nerv hollered, cackling with laughter. ‘Sacrifice
yeself for the booze!’
For a few seconds
Rip struggled in the water. Russell saw one arm slip around the
barrel, and he marveled at Rip’s selflessness. However, he would
later assume, he friend could have just been looking to hold on to
something that floated.
The water had begun
to rush back into the opening, as if pulled by a suction pump. One
moment Rip was there and the next he had been sucked down into that
deep, dark hole.
Coming to Kindle November 7th 2012
