Crown Park (12 page)

“Fifty kilometres,” said Fluoro.
“That’s how high the ash went. It fell down all over northern New
Zealand. Some of it circled the globe making red sunsets as far
away as China and Europe.”

Jack looked up at the man. The
orange glow from the vent was reflecting from his eyes. The perfect
match to his orange clothes. His expression was one of peace and
satisfaction.

“Oh, you two are back, are you?”
came a cross voice from nearby. “I thought we’d got rid of you for
good.”

Jack turned and saw Lucy
surrounded by moho. On her back were Emily and Pat.

“Where’s Godfrey?” he asked.

Lucy pointed her beak straight
at Jack. “You! You have the nerve to ask where Godfrey is?” She
sniffed noisily. “Gone! That’s where he is. Gone, and all because
of your stupid plan.”

“And Morris,” added Emily,
sounding as angry as Lucy. “He’s gone, too.”

“Did the adzebills get
them?”

“Yes! Of course the adzebills
got them,” Lucy shouted. “What else could have happened?”

“We don’t know that for sure,”
said Pat, reasonably. “All we know is that there was nothing at the
tree when I went back. No you, no adzebills, no Chainsaw, no
Godfrey, no Morris, no anything.”

It took some time for Lucy and
Emily to calm enough for the whole story to be told.

Emily had flown straight from
the tree to where Lucy was waiting with the moho. She reported that
the adzebills were walking into the trap. So they had waited. Then
The Source had made its loudest noise ever, with glowing ash and
lightning filling the sky. Lucy claimed to know it was a bad omen.
But still they had waited. And waited. By then it was dark and they
knew something must have gone wrong. Pat went back to investigate
and that’s when he found that everyone had gone.

“The next morning,” said Emily,
taking over the story. “I went out with my Eyes in the Sky and
found the adzebills a bit further back on the track. They were
lazing about as if they’d had a good feed. There was no sign of any
of our lot or your furry thing. If I could’ve looked in those
mongrels’ bellies I would have found them, I bet.”

“After that,” said Lucy. “I
decided that we’d better get away from the area as quickly as
possible. Pat knew of this place because sometimes his family roost
in caves nearby. He guided us here and this is where we’re going to
stay for a while.”

Jack spoke to Emily. “Did you do
any more Eyes in the Sky?”

“Every day. I’ve seen
nothing.”

“Not even the adzebills?”

“Nope. We don’t know where they
are.”

“I hope they’ve gone back to The
Source,” said Lucy with venom. “Let them burn there.”

Fluoro gave her a smile. “So you
agree that the lake is a dangerous place to be?”

It took her a while to answer.
“Yes,” she finally admitted. “You were right to tell us to come
here. We all would’ve died if we’d stayed. Not just Godfrey and
Morris.”

Fluoro accepted the apology with
a nod. “The worst part of the eruption is still to come,” he said.
“When it does, everything you see in front of you will be
destroyed.” He turned his head towards the lake. “It’s going to be
a fantastic sight.”

As if by magic, the volcano
chose that moment to give an extra large burst.

“Whoa!” said the moho as
one.

Lucy turned to them. “Haven’t
you lot gone to bed yet?”

“No,” said one. “Nobody told us
to.”

“Well, I’m telling you now. You
know you’ll only be grumpy in the morning if you don’t get enough
sleep.”

“OK,” accepted the moho.
“Goodnight, Lucy.” A chorus of goodnight Lucys followed. Then it
was goodnight Emily, followed by goodnight Pat. No one said
goodnight to Fluoro or Jack.

After the moho had tucked their
beaks under their stubby wings, Lucy went off to find a quiet spot
to sleep for herself. Emily followed, but Pat joined the two humans
who had found a large stone to sit on.

“I’m real sorry about Chainsaw,”
Pat said in a quiet voice. “He saved me. But I couldn’t save him.”
He paused for a while to look at the volcano. “I did try,” he
continued. “At nights when the others were asleep, I would fly off
and search. But I never found any sign of him. Nor Godfrey. It
didn’t really worry me about Morris. He’s so stupid.” He turned to
Jack. “I bet he’s the one who messed up your plan.”

Jack had moved on from blaming
Morris. “It was a bad plan,” he said. “Everything had to work
perfectly and it didn’t. There’s no point in blaming anyone.”

After that they sat and watched
the volcano in silence. It was hard not to. The activity seemed to
be changing all the time. There were times when it was a little
quieter. Then it would go with a rush and the plume would light up
like a gigantic firework.

As the moon rose higher in the
sky it became even more spectacular. There were no clouds and the
wind was carrying the ash away from them. The night was perfect for
watching one of the world’s greatest volcanoes in action.

Then, as if a tap had been
turned off, the eruption stopped.

“Look!” cried Fluoro. “The vent
has collapsed.”

Where the cone of the volcano
had been, there was now a hole. The plume remained for a second or
so, before falling to the ground. It spread out from the lake like
a dust storm, covering everything in its path.

By the time the sound of the
collapse reached the mountain, the plume was gone and the last of
the ash was being blown away to the East. After that there was
silence.

“Was that the end?” asked
Jack.

“No!” replied Fluoro. His eyes
were alight with excitement. “That was nothing compared with what
is yet to come.”

“Will we be safe?” Pat’s voice
was even squeakier than usual.

“I hope so,” replied Fluoro. “I
sincerely hope so.”

They waited while the minutes
passed. The wind had now dropped, as if it too was holding its
breath for the big event.

And still nothing happened.

Jack turned to Fluoro. “You sure
you got this right?”

“I’m sure,” he said, smugly.
“See where the vent was? The earth is beginning to bulge. The cork
has to pop soon.”

It did!

One moment there was just a
bulge, the next there was a column of molten magma, hundreds of
metres wide, as if a giant red-hot poker was being thrust out of
the earth. Up and up it went. And yet still more magma powered out
of the earth, until there was a column many kilometres high.

Then, as before, the flow
stopped, leaving the magma suspended in the air.

But not for long.

The first part to hit the ground
splattered up and sideways. Then came the rest. There was nowhere
for it to go except sideways. And that’s what it did, with a speed
that was breathtaking.

A circular wall of red blasted
over the land. Where there were hills, it rushed up and over the
top. Where there were valleys it jumped from one side to the other.
Nothing could stop it. Land, water, forests, nothing. It seemed
like it could flow forever.

In the end it had to slow and
stop, but not before Jack and the others on the mountain began to
fear that they would be caught in the flow. Even after that, they
had no time to feel relief before the blast hit them. Hot, stinky
air lifted them up and threw them backwards. For the first time in
their lives the moho were flying. But only until they were dashed
against the rocks of the mountain, where they lay heaped against
each other.

Jack was the first to get up. He
found himself in a silent world. Too silent. He put his hands to
his ears.
Oh no! Not my ears again!

Then he was aware of something
stuck on the back of his sweatshirt. He went to brush it off only
to find it was Pat. He was clinging on as if his life depended on
it.

“Wow!” said Pat. “What a
blast!”

Jack closed his eyes with
relief. He’d heard the little bat’s voice loud and clear.

One by one the animals picked
themselves up and gathered to view the damage.

The sight of it was awesome. All
of them fell silent as they took in the size of the disaster. Where
there had once been lakes, rivers, hills, forests, there was
nothing. Nothing but a giant, dull-red blob. In places it had
cooled to the grey rock that would eventually cover the land. In
others, escaping gases had caught fire, lighting the cool evening.
Even though the nearest edge was some distance away, Jack could
feel the heat warming his face.

But the overwhelming sense was
that of death. No living thing could have survived the event. From
the biggest tree to the smallest insect, all were gone, making it
hard to believe the land could ever recover. It seemed as if the
silence would remain for all time.

And yet, even as Jack was
thinking that, he heard a sound coming from lower down the mountain
where some plants remained. It was an animal sound. Almost like the
honk of a goose.

Jack looked at Fluoro. “Can you
hear anything?”

The man tilted his head for a
while before shaking it.

Maybe I’m imagining
things
, thought Jack. But the sound got louder. It
was
the honk of a goose.

“I can hear it,” said Pat,
excitedly. “It sounds like Godfrey.”

But Jack was no longer listening
to the honk. His ears had picked up another sound that was coming
between the honks. A wonderful, beautiful, fantastic sound. The
meow of a cat.

Honk, meow. Honk, meow. Honk,
meow… louder and louder all the time.

Soon everyone could hear it. The
moho rushed to the place where the track came out of the
bushes.

Godfrey was the first to appear.
The moho split to form a pathway. Next came Morris, much to the
delight of the rest of the moho. At the end was Chainsaw. His ears
were even more damaged than before, and his tail even more
crooked.

Jack could no longer contain
himself. He rushed forward, arms spread wide. Chainsaw saw him and
broke into a run. He leapt into the open arms and began rubbing his
head against Jack’s chin. Jack squeezed tight, and soon the noise
of an idling chainsaw echoed around the mountaintop.

Godfrey and Morris were the
storytellers.

Jack was sitting on the boulder
with Chainsaw taking up most of the space on his lap. The tiny bit
he didn’t use was taken by Pat.

Fluoro was alongside, listening,
but unable to take his eyes off the scene below. Godfrey and Morris
stood between the human’s legs. The rest of the birds were gathered
around like kids listening to a story at school.

“We watched the adzebills drag
Chainsaw away and move out of view,” said Godfrey. “No sooner had
they gone than The Source spoke in the most terrifying way.”

“I was really frightened,” said
Morris.

Godfrey nodded. “It
was
frightening. Even the adzebills were screaming. Things were calming
down a little when Chainsaw came running towards us. He’d escaped!
He ran past and continued up the path to where he moved onto a side
track. There he stopped and made that funny noise at us.”

“Meow,” said Jack.

“Yes, that’s the noise.”

“Pity he can’t talk,” said
Morris. “How dumb is that? Not being able to talk.”

“He doesn’t need to,” said
Godfrey. “I can understand him very well. It was clear that he
wanted us to follow. So we did. Soon we were well away from the
ambush tree. By then it was getting dark and I was becoming
worried.”

“I was too,” added Morris. “I
was really frightened.”

“Yes,” said Godfrey, rolling his
eyes, “you were. But Chainsaw wasn’t. He kept us moving. When it
got too dark for us birds to see, he began meowing so that we could
follow the noise. Only after we’d been walking for some time did we
stop and find a place to sleep. Although I don’t think Chainsaw
slept. I woke during the night and he was gone.”

“You didn’t tell me that,” said
Morris, crossly. “Where did he go?”

“To check on the adzebills.”

At the mention of the adzebills
all of the listening moho let out a little whimper.

“Anyway, he was back in the
morning and we headed off again. He seemed to know what he was
doing so we stayed with him.”

“We marched for ages and ages,”
said Morris.

“Three days and nights,” added
Godfrey. “And each night Chainsaw would go off for a while. I know
now that the adzebills were not that far behind us.”

Again the audience
whimpered.

“Then we came to land that had
big rocks everywhere, and we stopped marching. Chainsaw found a
clearing and started eating the grass. It seemed so strange, a
furry thing eating grass. But he indicated that we should do the
same, so we did.”

“It was good grass too,” said
Morris. “Very tasty.”

Godfrey continued. “After a
while the adzebills appeared at the edge of the clearing. But it
didn’t seem to worry Chainsaw. He kept on eating as if he didn’t
care that they were there. So, again, that’s what we did.”

“He started flicking his tail,
didn’t he?” said Morris.

Godfrey nodded. “Yes, I noticed
that. Well, we kept eating and the adzebills kept watching. By then
I was getting nervous.”

“And you can imagine how
frightened I was,” added Morris, “but I didn’t panic this time, did
I, Godfrey?”

“No, Mo, you didn’t. And just as
well, for after a while Chainsaw started drifting towards the edge
of the clearing. So we began drifting too, and very soon the
adzebills followed us, moving onto the grass. And that’s when it
happened.”

He paused for effect.

But Morris spoilt it by jumping
in.

“The earthquake.”

Godfrey gave him a nasty look.
“Yes, an earthquake. It caught the adzebills in the middle of the
clearing. And that was right where the ground fell in. It was just
like that other place where our moho got trapped. But this time it
was the adzebills that all went down and got stuck in the
sinkhole.”