Creeping Terror (8 page)

Ben had heard of the Knights Templar long ago. More recently he had heard of the Memento Mori too. They were a secret order of priestly knights that answered directly to the Vatican – to the Pope. They fought against the powers of darkness – rather like the School of Night did now. The order had been dissolved in the early eighteenth century, but while they existed they were a powerful secret force for the Church.

‘Memento Mori knights were buried facing north,’ Knight said. ‘Are you telling us that one of them is buried in the churchyard?’

‘It’s an interesting connection, isn’t it?’

‘They were buried facing north so that they would not go straight to Heaven,’ Rupam said, quoting – Ben guessed – from one of Growl’s own lectures. ‘That way they could guide others through limbo to paradise.’

‘It was also a sign that the knight’s work on earth was unfinished,’ Growl said, nodding his appreciation of Rupam’s comment. ‘Not all the knights of the Memento Mori were buried in this way, but many of them were if they had fallen in battle.’

‘There was a battle here?’ Gemma said, seeming interested for the first time.

‘Not a conventional battle. But a spiritual one perhaps. And, as I say, it may not be significant. Rather more pertinent, I suspect, is the fact that the church is built on a pagan site. That’s not unusual, of course. In fact there is a story about why the tower is separate from the church that relates back to the legend.’

‘Rupam told us,’ Gemma said. ‘The Devil moved the tower.’

‘Quite so. Well, in the legend.’

‘As you say,’ Knight interrupted, ‘it isn’t unusual for churches to be built on sites associated with earlier gods and religions.’

‘Ah, but this site, where the church is now, was
associated with the very fertility of the land, with the rites of spring. I believe we’re dealing with the Green Man. It’s a surprisingly modern term in literature – just seventy years old in fact – but the ideas go back into the depths of time. To all intents and purposes this is where ancient people worshipped him. The Green Man was a personification of nature itself … the god representing earth and vegetation and the seasons, if you like.’

‘Beware the green,’ Knight said.

‘The pub’s called the Green Man,’ Ben realised. ‘I thought it was, like, Robin Hood.’

The sunlight on the desk in front of him was making a dappled pattern, illuminating some of the papers spread out there, leaving others in shadow.

‘But the pub’s much older than that,’ Maria pointed out.

‘True. That’s because the name was around for a long time before it was used in literature and written down. It was there in local myths and legends, in folk tales and oral tradition. In the ancient carvings round the church tower you can still see what are called “foliate heads”. These days they are quite openly known as the Green Man.’

‘On the church tower?’ Rupam echoed in surprise. His face dipped into shadow as he leaned forward.

‘Which brings us back to the Puritans. They really didn’t like worshipping God in the beauty of holiness, as the Bible has it. They wanted to do away with all that pomp and ceremony and keep things plain and simple. They destroyed stained-glass windows, ornate carvings, paintings. Someone probably whitewashed over that doom painting in the church to hide it. The Puritans would have removed the statues of saints from the alcoves round the church tower and smashed them.’

‘Why is that important?’ Ben asked.

The whole table was in shadow now. The sun must have gone behind a cloud. There was a scraping sound, as if a bird had landed on the roof above.

‘Probably because of the history of the site, the saints were depicted with their feet resting on foliate heads. Literally crushing the Green Man underfoot.’

‘Now the saints are gone, destroyed by the Puritans,’ Maria said.

Growl nodded. ‘But the foliate heads are still there. The Green Man is no longer being controlled – no longer under the heel of the saints and kept in thrall to the new order of the world.’

There was silence for several moments while they absorbed this information. And as they sat
thinking, darkness crept across the floor, the shadows deepening.

‘But you said the statues of the saints, which somehow kept the power of the Green Man in check, were destroyed by the Puritans,’ Ben said, puzzled. ‘When was that?’

‘Oh, in the 1650s, I would think.’

‘So why is there a problem now?’

Everyone looked to Growl.

‘I’m afraid I have no idea,’ he said.

Sam leaned forward, over Ben’s shoulder. ‘It’s getting dark,’ she said. ‘How can it be getting dark?’

Ben frowned. She was right. He thought the sun had gone in, but it shouldn’t be this dark.

‘It’s getting dark,’ he said out loud, looking up at the windows set high in the walls above.

The glass in them was dulled and veined, like leaves. Greenery was spread across the panes – ivy and creepers growing over them, branches pressing against them.

Gemma jumped down off the desk. Maria and Rupam stood up, staring at the windows in horror.

‘Has that grown while we’ve been talking?’ Maria said.

‘I think we should get out of here,’ Knight decided.

One of the windows cracked across the middle,
making a sound like gunshot. Glass showered down into the schoolroom. Gemma shrieked as fragments lodged in her hair.

‘Definitely,’ Growl agreed. ‘Out now!’

As they ran for the door at the back of the room, a tangle of greenery crashed in through the broken window. Creepers slithered down the wall like snakes, while vines snaked across the floor. There was an explosion of glass as another window collapsed in fragments. Bits of window frame whipped at Ben’s face as he ran.

Knight heaved open the door …

Only to reveal a mass of green. Damp, glistening, pulsating, it bulged into the room. Ben could see buds bursting into small flowers. Tendrils extended and thickened. Branches lashed about, hunting for Ben and his friends as they backed away.

Then the weight of the vegetation pressing down on the roof finally caused the beams to give way. A canopy of green burst through and fell like a thorny blanket, knocking Ben off his feet and sending Rupam flying. Glass crunched as they landed and brambles dug into their flesh. The whole school was alive with thrashing plants and they were trapped inside.

B
EN KNEW THAT HE WAS BEING SMOTHERED. HE fought back as best he could, ripping tendrils away from his face and pushing branches to the side, but he could feel himself getting weaker and weaker. Suddenly a hand reached through the mass of writhing vegetation. Ben grabbed it and was hauled to his feet.

He found himself staring into Growl’s face. The clergyman was pale with anger.

‘Get out of here,’ he hissed at Ben. ‘Any way you can, but just get out.’

Growl was holding a small prayer book in his hand and he thrust it out in front of him as he turned away. Ben could see the man muttering under his breath as he walked slowly forward. The greenery seemed to part for him, drawing back as if in fear. But before Ben could follow, it closed immediately behind him and Growl disappeared into the living forest.

‘Ben!’ Rupam staggered up to him. The boy’s face was scratched and his hands were bleeding. ‘We have to get out of here. Somehow.’

Rupam stumbled as his foot was dragged from under him. Ben grabbed his friend and with all his strength tore him free.

‘Where are the others?’

‘I saw Maria and Gemma. Maria’s got the sword. She’s hacking her way out.’

‘Bet she’s better with it than you,’ Ben tried to joke.

‘Much better.’

‘Growl went through there,’ Ben said, pointing. There was no way they could follow.

‘Knight can look after himself.’

‘He’ll have to.’

All the time they were talking, Ben was looking for a way out – the slightest break in the vegetation hemming them in, the faintest light from beyond the wall of green. They had to fight just to stay on their feet, pulling away the branches and creepers that tried to bind them, kicking free of the roots that wanted to ensnare them …

In desperation, Ben looked to the heavens. Movement caught his eye – not the green of the plants this time, but artificial grey and white. A shirt beneath a suit. Knight was climbing up a massive
branch that had forced its way through the window and dipped down into the greenery below. As Ben watched, Knight thrust smaller branches out of the way and tore at the thrashing leaves. Looking down, he saw Ben and Rupam.

‘The others are out,’ Knight yelled. ‘See if you can get up here. We can climb over the top. It’s the only way left.’

‘We’re right behind you,’ Rupam shouted back.

Knight didn’t hear because at that moment a huge creeper whipped across and lashed into his shoulder. He lost his grip on the branch he was climbing. For a moment Ben was sure he was going to fall, but at the last minute Knight managed to regain his balance. He looked down at the two boys, smiled and nodded. The creeper had drawn back, like an attacking cobra. It gathered itself and lashed out again.

But its prey was no longer there. Knight leapt from the branch, straight at the window. The last of the glass shattered as he crashed through. A mass of ivy slithered rapidly after him.

Ben and Rupam went up together, helping each other. The huge branch that Knight had climbed bucked under them like a fairground ride as it tried to shake them off.

‘How does it know we’re here?’ Rupam asked as he clung on desperately. ‘Can it
see
?’

‘It just knows. Maybe it can feel us. Plants react to their surroundings, don’t they?’ Ben reasoned. ‘Maybe it can sense us from our temperature or the damp of our sweat or something. Anyway, does it matter?’ he demanded, as he lost his grip and almost fell.

‘Does if we can hide from the plants somehow,’ Rupam said.

His words were muffled by the ivy threading its way over his face and trying to get into his mouth. He bit and spat, and finally managed to hold on with one hand while using the other to tear the ivy away.

Ben was faring no better. After every few inches he climbed, he had to stop and drag aside the greenery that was struggling to hold him back. He kicked out at the creepers that tightened round his feet and legs. Scratched away the ivy and leaves. Tried to avoid the thrashing brambles.

Below, he could see the ruins of the desks. The papers and printouts that he and Rupam had risked their lives to get to Knight were ripped to pieces. The desks themselves had been torn apart or crushed. A stem erupted through an old inkwell, stabbing
towards Ben. He grabbed for a higher branch, kicked at a foothold and hauled himself upwards.

Above him, Rupam was now straddling the remains of the window ledge. Spikes of glass still clung to the sides of the window frame, glittering in the filtered sunlight. Rupam reached down for Ben. Their fingertips touched. Ben forced himself upright. His fingers curled round Rupam’s.

Finally, they were both at the window. The ground seemed to be rushing up to meet them. The floor of the schoolroom was a green blanket, billowing higher and higher.

Hands linked, Ben and Rupam jumped into space.

And now the plants that were trying to kill them saved their lives.

Ben tumbled into a soft canopy of greenery. The branches and leaves of a yew tree broke and slowed his fall. He caught a confused glimpse of Rupam – all arms and legs – spinning past him. Ben grabbed at the branches, leaves and twigs – anything to slow his descent.

At last he rolled clear, on to a patch of ordinary grass. Breathing heavily, he lay on his back, staring up at the pale blue sky. He was worn out. He didn’t move until he felt the grass under his hands stir and
start to grow. As tendrils of green crept across his exhausted body, Ben dragged himself to his feet.

Rupam was standing a short distance away, staring back at the wall of matted vegetation that completely covered the school building.

‘Where are the others?’ Ben asked, hurrying to join him.

Rupam shook his head. ‘The ground is moving. We need to get away from here.’

‘No kidding.’

But which way should they go? Ben was disorientated from the escape and had no idea which window they had tumbled out of. All he could see was the sudden impossible plant life shooting up around them. He couldn’t recognise any of the features of the school – even the main doors.

‘This way,’ Rupam decided.

‘How do you know?’ Ben ran after him.

‘I don’t. But the jungle is thinner here. It must be the way back to the middle of the village, to the church.’

Ben hadn’t thought of it as a jungle. But now Rupam used the word, he realised that was what it was – a jungle of English trees and plants, shrubs and creepers.

They ran as fast as they could, crashing through
the hedges and walls of green. They tripped and fell, helped each other up and staggered on. They felt the cruel thorns of the brambles and climbing roses, the whiplash cuts of narrow willow leaves and the stab of branches.

They ran until the world solidified around them, slowing their progress. Then they forced their way through – heads down, shouldering aside the curtains of foliage. Pushing through the undergrowth was like wading through water. Ben and Rupam linked arms so they wouldn’t get separated and forged ahead.

Not daring to stop, they carried on, slower and slower, until both of them were near to total exhaustion. Ben was about to collapse when he saw Rupam suddenly grin.

‘We’re through!’ Rupam exclaimed. ‘Look – we’re through!’ And now he was laughing as he dragged Ben onwards.

The jungle stopped. An abrupt wall of green rose up like a hedge behind them as Ben and Rupam staggered through it and flopped to the ground. To the grass. To the normal, damp grass that didn’t move under them or curl upwards at them …

For a full minute, they lay panting on their backs, staring at the sky.

Until a green shape loomed massively above them.

Ben leapt to his feet.

‘Hey, steady on. Are you OK?’

The shape was a soldier in khaki uniform, his face smeared with dark camouflage paint. Plastic leaves stuck out from the webbing on his helmet. He cradled an assault rifle.

‘What were you doing in there? How did you
get
here? This is a restricted area.’

‘And you’re going to tell us it’s 1943 and don’t we know there’s a war on,’ Ben gasped, still out of breath.

The soldier gave a short bark of laughter. ‘Am I hell? Who do you think I am?’ He shook his head and turned to glance at several other soldiers hurrying over to join them. ‘God knows what Colonel Greene’s going to say when he hears about this.’

‘Where did these kids come from?’ another soldier asked, jogging up. He had the three stripes of a sergeant on his shoulder.

‘No idea, Sarge. They just appeared out of the hedge.’

‘We have to get back in there, reach the village,’ Ben said. ‘We’ve got to help Mr Knight and the others.’

‘What’s he on about, Cooper?’ the sergeant demanded.

The first soldier – Cooper – shook his head.

‘Please,’ Rupam begged. ‘We only just got out, through there.’ He pointed back at the wall of greenery. From this side it just looked like a hedge. ‘It’s growing,’ he said. ‘It attacked us.’

The two soldiers looked at each other.

‘The hedge attacked you?’ the sergeant said. ‘Yeah, right. Get these two back to HQ,’ he told Cooper. ‘The colonel will want a word with them.’

‘Yes, Sarge.’

‘Rupam’s right,’ Ben insisted. ‘You have to listen to us, please.’

His words were drowned out by the noise of a powerful engine. A large tank rumbled into view, its tracks chewing up the grass. Its heavy gun seemed to be aiming right at Ben and Rupam. Moments later, a second tank swept up alongside, then a third. They stopped about twenty metres from where the boys were standing.

‘Please,’ Ben said again as the tanks’ engines idled more quietly. ‘Our friends are still in there. You have to help them.’

‘You could get through in those. Tanks could get through the jungle,’ Rupam said.

‘They’ll get through it all right,’ Private Cooper told them. ‘That’s why they’re here. The colonel’s
got tanks surrounding the village now. But there’s no one inside the cordon. He’s assured us of that. I don’t know where you’ve come from and you’re going to have a lot of explaining to do. But right now I need to get you out of here before the advance begins.’

‘What advance?’ Ben asked.

‘You mean you
are
going into Templeton?’ Rupam said.

‘
Through
it more like. It’s lucky you got out when you did. I don’t know what Colonel Greene’s got against that village. But pretty soon it’ll be nothing but rubble.’

Ben felt cold suddenly. ‘What do you mean?’

‘He’s had it in for that place ever since he spent a week there alone on survival training, a couple of months back. First he had his men vandalise the church – now this.’

‘But what is
this
?’

‘Colonel Greene’s orders. The advance begins in a few hours. We’re going to crush that village and everything in it to dust. Let nature take its course.’

Ben gaped in horror. ‘But you can’t! There are people still in there.’

‘You might not even see them if they’re indoors or trapped in the jungle,’ Rupam added.

‘There’s no one in there,’ Private Cooper told them confidently. ‘The whole place has been cleared. Now the village has to be levelled.’

‘But why?’ Ben demanded. ‘Why are you doing this?’

‘Colonel’s orders. It’s an exercise, isn’t it?’ Private Cooper frowned, as if trying to remember. ‘We’re doing it because … because …’ His frown deepened. Then his face cleared as he remembered. ‘We’re training for the landings. Training to flatten a German-occupied village. Destroy it completely and let nature take its course.’

‘But can’t you see –’ Ben started.

He didn’t get any further because Private Cooper grabbed him and shoved him towards the waiting Land Rover. Then he pushed Rupam after Ben.

‘Right, that’s enough now. Let’s have a bit of hush and get you to Colonel Greene. Careless talk costs lives, right? And so does breaking into a restricted area. You two are in big trouble.’

Ben stared at Rupam in horror as they were marched up to the Land Rover and bundled in the back.

‘Don’t you know there’s a war on?’ Private Cooper said.