Bat Dash

• Noah Mccarthy-bache, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2015

“Ouch” a thorn brushed Jack’s hand “are you sure the ball is in this bush” he yelled.
“Positive” called James from behind.
Jack pulled his hood up over his head and the long sleeves of his shirt further down, then crawled into the prickly bush. James waited, leaning up against a tree.
Jack felt around, he couldn’t find the ball, he inched forward. Suddenly the ground gave way beneath him. Jack fell into openness.
“Ahhh”, a long silence, followed by “ooph”. James lept into the bush, at the last moment remembering the prickles as they scratched his arms. Jack had disappeared down a small cave opening!
“Jack” screamed James, then abruptly he too felt himself falling.

James was glad he didn’t land on stones, but he suddenly felt very itchy. He jumped up.
“Hello crazy” laughed Jack.
“Not my fault I followed you” said James.
“Actually it is” replied Jack who was still lying on the large pile of dried grass that had broken their fall and had made James itch.
They heard a crack behind them and looked around.
“Oh no.” A large python was about 10 meters away from them, it’s tongue flickered in and out. James screamed and Jack started laughing. “It’s just my robot snake I lost quite a while ago” laughed Jack.
“Oh seriously” said James.
Jack picked up a piece of flint from the ground. He struck it on a stone and lit a torch made from the dry grass, together they started walking through the cave.
Hours later they were still walking through the cold cave. Strangely enough it was mostly a big tunnel, although they did have to crawl from time to time.
“I’m thirsty, we need to find water,” rasped James.
“There’s some.”
“It’s not clean. Let’s keep walking down this pass………” but James never finished his sentence. A giant bat had loomed up in front of them.
This time Jack did not laugh.
“I will grant you safe passage but first you will have to give me a piece of knowledge” boomed the bat. Jack and James looked at each other.
“Ahhh, E equals centimetres square…” mumbled James.
“He means E equals MC square” interrupted Jack.
The bat screeched “you fools, that is not what I meant.” Suddenly the bat exploded into thousands of smaller bats. They wildly flapped their wings and Jack felt their bodies smash into him. He stumbled backwards and put his arm up to shield his face, the torch in Jack’s hand flickered and then went out. In the last moment of light there came a bloodcurdling screech, then everything went black and silent.
Jack felt warm blood trickle down his cheek. He opened his eyes and saw James bending over him.
“Are you all right?” asked James.
“Where is the king bat?” croaked Jack.
“That ball hit you harder than I thought,” laughed James “is your head ok?”
“Yes” said Jack rubbing his forehead.