9: The Fun of Stealing

Currently in love with Eragon. Best book EVER.

A clatter up the street made them jump, but it was only a mangy dog looking for scraps. They had been led into what Logan imagined the cleanest part of the area, but it still looked sad and dirty. “Quiet,” hissed Alec. He and another girl, Thay, were showing them what they did for a living. Logan had also wanted to see whether Commander Brack or his men had showed up yet.

Thay stuck her head around the corner. She was fifteen, tall, with jet-black hair and bangs, and a nose piercing, clad entirely in black. Thay looked once more around the corner, then dashed out to the other side, the rest following behind. Under the filtered yellow light, the dismal street stood out of the shadows. Most of the buildings were single-level, a perfect example of urban sprawl. The bricks were faded, the windows dirty, the signs bright, kitschy, and annoying. They blinked in neon colours, though it was obvious no one was inside.

“This is the plan,” whispered Thay. “We want that building – Farmer’s Fun Foods. I’m going in from the front, and you wait in the alley until you hear me calling. Then come inside, load as much food as we can into your arms and sacks, then we’re leaving lickideesplit, okay?”

Alec, Flo P, Logan, Ji-Ji and Saraha all nodded and grumbled in ascent. Thay took off, stealthily and quick. She was almost a black blur, streaking over to the food-mart. At the door, she stopped. After a breathless few seconds, the door popped open and Thay disappeared inside.

Alec motioned them to follow. Slyly, they crept behind ugly buildings and under rusty balconies with dead and dried plants until they were next to Farmer’s Fun Foods. Alex put a finger to his lips, motioning the other to be silent, but whispered. “You ready?”

The four nodded. Logan felt his stomach roiling a little. This was his first real rule-breaking adventure since jumping the train, but he considered stealing worse. Still, it was all very exciting.

“Remember, we’re more important than the food. So what if the police nab our bag? We help our comrade before we take the food to safety. Although, don’t go fighting for a lost cause. One person who gets captured is better than two,” said Alec softly.

“You sound harsh,” said Saraha critically. “I’d go back for all of you, even Logan. Although, maybe not you, Alec, considering you wouldn’t come back for me,” she said distastefully.

As their bickering over morals continued, Logan drew Flo P off into a corner. “Let’s hope nothing goes wrong,” he said.

Flo P reached over and squeezed his hand, holding onto it reassuringly, for him and herself. He noticed her pale face, nervousness, the way she swung her foot when she was anxious.

“Are you okay?” he asked her. “I can ask Alec to take us back.”

“What are you calling me, a coward?” asked Flo P defiantly. She smiled in what she hoped was a sure way. “C’mon, nothing will go wrong. We can do it.”

Logan nodded at her. When Flo P wasn’t looking, Ji-Ji looked over, winked, and mouthed, ‘Good job.’

A shrill whistle sliced through the air. Everyone looked up. “That’s Thay’s signal,” announced Alec, and they streaked off into the building.

It was dimly lit, creating looming towers of Eezee Wipe toilet paper and Scrubbers kitchen soap. They noticed Thay in a corner, stuff her sack full of pears, ground beef, and potatoes. As they approached her, she hissed, “Alec, you get fruits and veggies; Saraha, beans; Logan, toilet paper; Ji-Ji, soap; and Flo P, meat.”

They set to their tasks immediately, and their sacks were full within fifteen minutes. “Go, go, go,” said Alex, and they all ran as fast as possible out of the store. Immediately, alarms when off. All that could be heard was wailing and screaming. Alec swore loudly, and took off, leading they way. He didn’t even try to hide and wasn’t cautious like usual; he streaked along alleys and backstreets without looking or caring.

Finally, the sirens stopped. Then a sound even worse met their ears: the sound of tires screaming on pavement. Flashing orange lights bounced along walls.

“There’s no way we can outrun them!” yelled Thay. Both she and Alec stopped. “You know what to do?” she asked him.

“Don’t worry,” he smirked, “I’ve got it.” He pushed his sack into They’s arms, and looked at them all. “See you soon,” he grinned hastily, and then ran off in the opposite direction.

“What’s he doing?” said Ji-Ji, uneasy.

“He’s leading them away,” said They as they ran. “Simple tactic.”

“That idiot! He was only pretending to be heartless, wasn’t he?” Saraha was frustrated.

“Don’t worry, he’ll make it back fine.” Even though she tried to sound indifferent, even Thay was worried.

They made it back to the hideout safely. Maxee, who was stacking and preparing food for dinner, looked up happily when they arrived. “Six full sacks of food! This’ll last us at least a week. Good job!” He looked up, noticing an absence. “Alec ran off, didn’t he?” He swore loudly. “Always showing off.”

He returned to stacking beans angrily.

Ji-Ji, Saraha, Flo P and Logan slumped into their hammocks in the corner that they’d been given the night before.

“He was pretty selfless, wasn’t he?” said Ji-Ji.

“Oh, stuff it,” said Saraha, vexed.

“He practically saved our lives, we should appreciate it,” said Logan, Flo P nodding in agreement.

“He may have, but say he dies or gets sent to an orphanage or gets injured – then it would be our fault, wouldn’t it? He may have saved us, but we certainly haven’t saved him.” Saraha rolled over and they lapsed into an uncomfortable silence.

His arrival was evident right away, because nearly everyone was asleep. When the first few shouts broke the silence, the four groggily got up to see what was happening. Lots of others were peering out of their hammocks and out of sleeping rolls.

Alec was grinning, standing in the centre of the room, blood dripping down his face. His normally bright red hair was a gross brown and a questionable black substance covered his face. His lip was split and a bruise was blooming on the left side of his jaw.

Thay looked so revealed she might have started to cry. Maxee was patting him on the back, saying, “I should have known you’d come back alright, but that was probably the riskiest time yet.”

Eventually Alec broke away from his well-wishers and the cooing girls, ogling over his bloody face and ripped clothes, and came over to the Quad Squad, what Logan and Flo P had been giggling about naming their group after eating too many dried cucumber slices.

“Wow,” said Ji-Ji.

Saraha whistled through her teeth, and Flo P asked, “What happened?”

Logan nodded, frowning, “Are you okay?”

Alec grinned, and launched into his story of dodging police, hiding in a residential building, jumping out windows, tromping through a sewer, and finally finding a safe place to hide in the neighbouring area’s quarters. “So you’re lucky I’m here,” he said proudly. “I could be captured by the fat old men waving doughnuts and bats, calling themselves servants of the law. There isn’t ‘law’ anymore. Nah, I’m kidding. It was pretty scary.”

“What do you mean?” Ji-Ji asked.

Alec sighed, “Just have twenty tall, muscled, darkly clad and armed men pounding the pavement to oblivion behind you, and you’ll know the feeling. It’ll never leave you.”

“So what are you going to do now?” asked Logan.

“Wait until it’s my turn for it to happen again,” Alec said gravely. 

8: Maximus Xent’s SKAT

Tribute someone, he knows who he is! Oh, and I think I’m going to make my chapters longer than before. There’s so much I want to add, now that it’s getting interesting!

Saraha immediately jumped up, grabbing one of her knives, unsheathing it, and pointing it at the stranger. “WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU WANT?”

“Whoa, calm down!” said the boy, around two years older than them – sixteen, maybe seventeen. “I just wanted to ask.”

Logan shot him a look. “Give us a minute,” he said to the youth.

“Who do you think he is?” asked Flo P.

“He could be ANYONE. Just because he’s young doesn’t mean he’s not with THEM,” said Saraha out of the corner of her mouth, keeping a wary eye on the stranger.

“We should hear what he has to say, though,” Ji-Ji said.

The boy smirked. “Are you done conferencing? I dunno if I’ve ever seen four kids as wary as you.

“But I’m being rude. My name’s Maximus Xent. I wondered what you were doing out on the streets this early, all alone – honestly, that’s all! I’m president of SKAT. That’s Street Kids Assosiation of Tribes.”

“What’s that?” asked Logan, furrowing his brow.

“I’m basically the head of this giant organization of street kids who’ve broken off and formed groups in different parts of the city. In the beginning, it provides food and shelter for kids who don’t know where to go. Then they join one of the city’s tribes. It’s totally underground, and no one knows about it except the lucky few, and the tribes, of course.

“So I know orphans or run-aways when I see them, and you four are clearly typical. Not wanting to be found. I can see it on your faces. I know it’s a stretch to say, but you can trust me.”

“There’s one thing we want to know, just to test if we can really trust you,” said Logan. Do you know anything about, say… walruses?”

“And don’t lie. I can see a lie on anyone, because it crosses their face in a split second and leaves. So don’t,” said Ji-Ji menacingly.

Maximus Xent chuckled. “Walruses? Not like the tusked, whiskered animals, marine animals? No, I don’t. Wait, I do! Not the Wal Clan, ruling the Southern Tarus area of the city? No, not that? Okay, then, I don’t have a clue.”

“We trust you, sort of,” said Ji-Ji, speaking for the group. She must have decided she wasn’t suspicious, but still was eyeing him warily.

“Lead us on, then, to wherever you’re going to take us,” snapped Saraha. “We’re not waiting here forever.”

Maximus smiled at them, then motioned them on. He was a lot taller than them and walked faster, the dishevelled group jogging behind him. He led them through unfamiliar dark alleys, all dirty and pitch dark. The one time they had to cross a lit street, Maximus hurried them across quickly, checking both ways to make sure it was empty before and afterwards. It might have been a fifteen minutes walk before Maximus Xent flung out a hand.

They were standing before a cellar door to a small, old, dilapidated factory. Maximus opened it and walked down the steps, telling Logan, who went last, to close them quietly behind them.

They followed Maximus to a basement. The roof and wall had crumbled. A small hole could be seen, but it all seemed to be broken and a dead end to the basement of the factory.

“Miaow with seven handles,” said Maximus, his voice bouncing along the walls.

Out from the hole popped a flaming, scarlet red head. It was followed by a toothy grin and bright green eyes. “Maxee, where were you, mate?” it asked.

Maximus grinned. “Look who I found! Interesting kids – you’ll see. I’ll have to go out again, to get the stuff, though.”

“Come on, then, don’t loiter,” said the head, and it popped out of sight again.

Maximus crawled through the hole, motioning the four to follow. Ji-Ji, Saraha, Flo P and Logan all threw each other a giant group glance, and then followed Maximus. The hole led through a tarp, into a dim room. It wasn’t too large, but had the appearance of being so. Hammocks were slung all around it, some scraping the ceiling, others brushing the ground. Kids of all verities lay on them, on the floor, others against the wall.

Maixmus smiled at the group’s faces. “What, is this atmosphere different from what you’re used to? There’s this type of thing in all large cities, although I dunno if it gets any bigger than our multiplex organization.”

The red-haired boy, lanky, grinned at them. He was nearer their age. “My name’s Alec. If you’re hungry, we’ve got food, but I’m ’fraid it’s not much. We’ve been running low these days. Come ’ere.”

He guided them to a corner stacked with boxes. Pulling off a couple, Alec pulled out five apples, and a can of beans. He divvied up the beans into four small helpings, as well as the apples, but kept one for himself.

“We’ve got food,” said Ji-Ji, taking a can of tomatoes and adding it to their sad-looking beans.

Alec looked agog. “Where’d you get that?” he asked. “No street kid can get ANYTHING anymore, and I mean it.”

Flo P looked at him. “We brought it from home. And what’s with this shortage of food and creeping about the city?”

Alec sighed. “You’re not from Andersbad, are you? I saw it the moment you walked through the door. Kids from great places who aren’t happy. You have no idea what it’s like surviving the rough, and trust me; it’ll get rougher.

“Our network was just a network before, not underground or anything. And then we were pronounced ‘dangerous’. People to be eradicated. Children to be rounded up and sent to orphanages. So then we had to go underground. You can’t show your face anywhere by day unless it’s if you look normal. Like part of society, not some vermin found on the street.”

“But how do you get food, then?” asked Logan. “How does this still work?”

“There’s always the sketchy people who’ll sell anything to anyone, but now the price is higher to turn one of us in than to sell any goods, so we mostly borrow by night,” explained Alec.

“Borrow? You mean steal, right? You’re just plain robbers who tell tall tales,” sneered Saraha.

Alec rolled his eyes. “There’s always haters. What would you rather us do, DIE? There’s something corrupt going on here,” he said, “and it’s getting worse.”

Logan eyed the other three, and they returned his stares. Maybe it wasn’t just them. Was it happening all around them? On such a large scale, maybe in the government, Logan wondered? And this frightening force… it wasn’t just after them, anymore… It was all around them.

7: Andersbad, HERE WE COME!

I have gotten a reader who doesn’t read because they don’t want to offend me by not reading. Yesssss! Thanks, Max!

PS. It’s going to be a super-long chapter compared to others.

“Logan?” hissed a voice.

Logan peered from the tree house to see Saraha and Flo P standing at the base of the tree, holding flashlights, rucksacks on their backs. Logan climbed down and turned to them. “Where’s Ji-Ji?”

“She said she needed to pack some essentials. Are you ready?” asked Flo P.

“I bet NOT!” said Saraha, eyeing Logan. After a look from Flo P, she said, “Naw, I bet the pansy’s cool and ready for action, right, Logan?”

Logan nodded, tried not to feel stung. After all, he was the new SUPER LOGAN; Logan the Brave; Logan the Strong; Logan the ROCK! “That’s right. Come on, guys. Let’s wait by the garage.”

On the way out, testing his new Super Abilities, Logan reached around and put his arm protectively on Flo P’s shoulders. If it wasn’t so dark, he could have sworn she was blushing, but she didn’t wriggle away. Logan felt so happy. Saraha cast one glance at the two, rolled her eyes and smirked. Logan thought her heard a, “Good Lord, what’s the world coming to?” come from her throat, but he couldn’t be sure.

Soon, a dark figure could be seen along the street. It was Ji-Ji, who stealthily crept up, and who they scared half to death by jumping out silently and leading into the garage.

“I’ve got all the things we need,” said Ji-Ji, showing them a light but packed rucksack. “Clothes, extra food, knives, lots of money, but also more essentials. I’ve soap, toothpaste, and calcium tablets to keep up energy, but most importantly, four heat-containing blankets.” She divvied up the blankets and toothpaste and soap.

“Are we ready?” asked Flo P hesitantly.

Logan decided: it was his turn to take leadership, to speak. “I just want to make something clear. You don’t have to come. You will never have to. But I’m glad it’s us. I’m glad I’m running away and hiding whatever’s so important in that document. I doubt we’ll get very far, but we can still try. I’m glad we’re friends.”

“That’s nice, Logan,” said Ji-Ji.

Flo P gave him a quick squeeze, and even Saraha said, “Thanks, O Pansy One.”

They set out for the train station, an estimated ten minutes with taking the bus, which they were not risking. They trooped down to the station, and since the town wasn’t that big, and Logan’s house was in the centre of it, it only took them twenty.

The train station was grey under the murky lamplight, and deserted but for two men, waiting to catch the train. Newspapers and cigarette butts littered the platform. Ji-Ji put her arm out to stop the other three, as they were about to make their way onto the platform.

“Stop,” she hissed. “We don’t want anyone to see us. We’ll take the far compartment when the stationmaster isn’t looking, or whichever one the two men aren’t in.”

“She’s right. Do you want someone to see us and report us barely an hour into our escapade?” asked Saraha.

They crouched in the shadows silently, one playing lookout outside, the other watching the platform, until the men boarded the train and the stationmaster strolled to the end, staring off into the distance.

“Train 115 is leaving in one minute. Please board the train!” rang out an electronic female voice, as the four kids scurried up to the far compartment and jumped in, just as the doors snapped shut. The stationmaster whipped his head around.

“Who’s there?” he called. “If I catch anyone jumping the train…”

But it was already slowly pulling out of the station. The stationmaster watched it turn into a silver blur, and disappear into the night.

“Great job!” cried Flo P.

Ji-Ji looked at them critically. “That was close, you know that, right?”

“So what?” Saraha asked. “So far, so good, right?”

They slumped down on the hard plastic seats, watching the occasional lights flicker by. The endless passing sea of neighbourhoods and suburban lots stood along the way to Andersbad, like a massive sea of plankton before an even greater urban whale. Andersbad was three hours away from the village by train. Logan suggested everyone get sleep, and then set his watch to quarter to three a.m.

He awoke and shook the others just as Andersbad loomed out of the darkness, with its lights and towers and foggy halo of bustle and noise, even in the cruel hours of the morning.

The four friends watched in awe as it loomed up, and soon engulfed them. The train stopped near the edge of the city, and waiting until the two other men had left out of sight, and nobody was watching them, they ran on and past the platform, into a dark alleyway wedged between two buildings.

Ji-Ji was solemn, but Saraha and Flo P and Logan were all grins.

“Perk up, Ji-Ji!” said Logan. “Andersbad! We’re somewhere that’s even harder to find four kids in! A massive city just to get lost and wander and plan, it’s fantastic!”

“It’s like our own metropolitan playground, just waiting for us to dive into,” said Flo P dreamily.

But Ji-Ji only had room for serious. “We need SLEEP. Where can we get that? You need to stop thinking about the present and start on the near future. We’ll never function properly if we can’t find our safe haven. Four innocent kids on the street? We’ll get kidnapped and carted to who-knows-where… Or worse. Come on. Let’s go.”

They tromped along the alleys and streets, until they were sure they had reached the outermost ring of the city. It was dark, dirty and smelled of garbage and sewers. The four’s noses wrinkled. It was nothing like home. Logan checked to make sure that the Walrus Document was still in his backpack, and contented, he put the file back in again.

The horizon was beginning to lighten. Flo P could hardly drag her feet much more, but Ji-Ji walked with energy, encouraging, telling them “We’re almost there!” But where was there, no one knew, not even Ji-Ji, who knew loads of important stuff.

Finally, Saraha collapsed on a dustbin. “I can’t keep going on this pilgrimage to find ‘shelter’, or whatever we ARE looking for in the first place.”

“C’mon, Saraha,” said Logan slowly. “We need to go.”

“Go where?” said a voice, stepping out the shadows turning to face the dishevelled group.

6: Now THEY Know

DUN DUN DUN…

His mother, at work most likely, was nowhere to be seen. The interior of the house lay in wreckage. Nothing appeared to be stolen – Logan knew it wasn’t, because the article that the ran-sackers were looking for was in his backpack. Logan ran up to his room.

His bed was in shreds. The covers had been mauled, and pieces of the mattress covered the floor. Pieces of paper, odd wooden bits of his desk, crinkled under Logan’s feet.

Had he honestly thought it was over? No, Logan quipped, trying to defend himself – after all, it wasn’t his fault. But, he though again, I’d practically passed the danger. It had been quiet for so long… And now… Now they know.

The first real cold dread and fear clutched at Logan’s heart. He was stalk still, like a deer in the headlights. He had assumed there was no danger left when he saw the ruins of what used to be the inside of his house when he stepped in after school; what if the intruders were still in here, hiding? Heart pounding like a gong, Logan ran out of his room and jumped down the stairs, and fell with a sickening crash onto the floor, right on his Pitchy-Clarinet. He’d cracked part of it, but it was evident enough to see that it had been mutilated already.

He flew out the door and down the street. Where would he go? Obviously not back to school. He’d never been to Flo P’s house, but he knew where it was after walking past it with the gang on the way back from the café. He ran all the way there.

Despite his fear, Logan nervously rang the doorbell. There was a faint ‘bing’, then the sound of feet pounding down the stairs.

Flo P opened the door. “Logan!” she said. “Do you… er… need anything?”

Logan asked nervously: “Can I come in? It’s got to do with the you-know-what.” He stepped over the threshold and Flo P closed the door behind him. From upstairs, a voice yelled,

“That’s not Logan, is it?” Ji-Ji bumped down the stairs on her behind, closely followed by Saraha, who pretended to vomit behind Ji-Ji.

“I need to talk to you,” Logan almost sobbed. Flo P looked at him, heavily concerned, and even Saraha had to listen. “It’s about the Walrus Document – they know I have it. I got home, and my house was in ruins; I have it here, but… but… But what do I do now?”

Flo P put her arms around him, and Ji-Ji handed him a tissue.

“Well, isn’t it obvious?” asked Saraha, rolling her eyes. We have to go away. Run away. We can’t let them get it.”

Logan looked up. The fact was: he wasn’t scared to run away. Fine, he WAS, but that wasn’t what was bothering him. What if they got killed? What if they got lost? What would happen if someone found out they’d gone? And worst of all, what would happen to Flo P?

Saraha stomped her foot. “You’re SUCH scardy cats. Didn’t you realise this from the beginning?”

Ji-Ji nodded her agreement. “Yeah. What else are we going to do? C’mon, we have to get ready NOW.” She immediately fell into her director-role. “We’ll leave tonight – not too late, not too early – but giving us enough time to catch a train and be safely in or on our way to Andersbad by morning. When the does latest train leave – 12:00 am? How about eleven-thirty at Logan’s treehouse? That gives us thirty minutes to walk to the station.

“Next, bring a rucksack of stuff. Maybe wear a short-sleeve shirt and a sweater, with a jacket, and pack a long-sleeve shirt? Also, wear a pair of thick pants and then pack another pair, along with some thick socks.”

“Oh, and sturdy shoes to walk in!” added Flo P. Her eyes were set and hardened.

Logan almost laughed at himself internally. What a fool he’d been! They may have looked like random girls, but he found himself looking at them like goddesses.

Logan decided: it was his fault he’d brought them in: he’d take more control. He had to shed his timid skin. It was time for Logan the Brave to dominate! He said, “Don’t forget, a good Evan-branded water bottle is key, lots of money, keys, and anything else that might come in handy, like non-perishable food items. Cans of soup, beans, nuts, and dried fruit.”

“Like a knife of some kind. A Freedom’s Army Knife, many if you can, and maybe one of those heavy-duty ones that fathers keep in the garage, if it comes down to heavy fighting,” Saraha said boisterously.

Logan furrowed his brow. “There we go, then. 11:30 pm, my treehouse. See you there.”

5: The Fifth Instalment

Logan had decided to hide the Walrus Document in his house, in his schoolbooks. Nobody would ever think of looking in his schoolbooks, Logan reckoned. Flo P, Saraha and Ji-Ji hadn’t been over since they’d found it… Logan found himself pining for interaction with them. They, after all, were the only friends he’d ever had.

Suddenly, the phone rang, and jerked him from his sad stupor. “Hello?” his mother asked downstairs. “Yes, yes, oh, hello! One moment, Flo P, I’ll just give you to Logan.”

Logan felt his heart beating, almost as much as when Commander Brack had confronted him, but it was a lot more alive, like hot chocolate was pumping in his veins. He grabbed the phone, and was so nervous he squeaked, “HELLO!”

“Oh, hi, Logan!” Logan marveled at how smooth she was – he was so nervous his hands were shaking, and he almost dropped the phone. “I was wondering if we could get together and talk about ‘the whale-fish pages.’”

“Yes, of course,” Logan said, his voice squeaking again. He felt like he was a door that needed oil on its hinges.

In the background, he heard a loud voice yell, “I FEEL LIKE SUCH A GOOSEGOG! I WILL NOW GO TO THE BATHROOM SO YOU CAN ROMANTICALLY ASK TO SNOG LOGAN ON A PRE-ARRANGED TIME PERIOD. Saraha audibly stomped off. Logan could almost feel her grinning, and he felt himself blush.

“Sorry about Saraha, the big chump,” Flo P said. “I was saying – I think we should discuss it. What do you think? I don’t want to sound paranoid, as I’ve found myself becoming lately…” She paused, thinking, then said: “But I think it should be in a normal environment, so it doesn’t attract attention.”

“GOOD IDEA!” said Logan, then carefully lowered his squeak and volume. “How about we meet at the café tomorrow at 3 o’clock?”

“Sure thing!” said Flo P.

“HEY, YOU PRE-ASSEMBLED SNOGGERS, JI-JI’S HERE!” boomed a voice in the background. “SHALL I LET HER IN? NAH, SHE’S TOO MUCH OF A BARNACLE.”

“Sorry, Logan! I have to control my friend – she’s eaten too much raw sugar!” said Flo P, and abruptly hung up.

Logan felt shivers run up his spine. He’d just had a phone conversation with a girl, and for his standards, it had gone quite normally. Now there was something for the books!

Later, the four friends met up at the local café. The problem was, Logan was too scared to read the Walrus Document, and besides being chicken, he also felt as if it was going to bring bad things.

“Hello, all,” said Saraha, last as usual. She went to the counter and ordered a hot chocolate, the came back to the table, where her friends were chatting idly. “The problem is,” Saraha said, bringing them back to the pressing issue, “we don’t know what that Document is, but that’s because Logan’s too scared. Although, I do agree with him.”

Flo P gaped.

Saraha narrowed her eyes. “Why are you so surprised? We could be tortured for information or something, and then it’d be all Logan’s fault. If that’s not overly melodramatic. ANYWAY, I think we should get ready. Nothing may happen, but I just know it will.”

“Get ready?” asked Ji-Ji.

Logan spoke up. “You know, pack.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “What if we have to leave? What if they try to get at it?”

Flo P looked alarmed, Ji-Ji looked like she was planning already, but Saraha and Logan looked like they had expected it all along, though Saraha looked slightly disgusted by this.

“I can’t believe it’s come to this. Don’t you think we’re overreacting?” asked Flo P.

“No, it is entirely thought out. I have been brooding on it for days,” Logan confessed. “It is the only way.” He nodded, grabbed his mug, and took a heart swig, banging it back down on the table. It was settled.

4: The Lunk Tree

The next installment of ‘The Creativity of Logan Manchester’! And ha, ha, ha, I’ve just figured out how it’s going to end. Hang on and find out, or I’ll be away laughing on a fast camel.

The next day, the four met up at the local café to go over to Logan’s. Saraha was still angry that the ‘crap document’, as she had insisted on calling it, had wrecked her flute. The tree house was going to be searched thoroughly for any inkling of where this sketchy report could be.

They walked over to Logan’s house, on 28 Elm Lane, and promptly went into the backyard. The tree house was small, and for Ji-Ji, Saraha, Flo P and Logan, it was a tight squeeze. To search it was harder, so they agreed that they should search in shifts. Because Logan knew the tree house best, he went first, but nothing was found.

Saraha rolled her eyes; “We’re going off on a whim – nobody knows where the crap document is, and never will. Your father was humoring you, face it, Logan.”

Flo P who had taken up to standing up for Logan, who couldn’t for himself, said, “Of course it’s in here, Saraha – don’t be so mean. Can’t you see what Logan’s going through?”

“No, I can’t,” she grumbled, and watched Flo P climb the ladder for her fifteen-mintue shift.

Alas, nobody found anything. The problem was – there was not much area to search. They tried looking down cracks and under the windowsills and under the shingles on the roof, but this yielded nothing, at least until it was Ji-Ji’s turn. Instead of searching, she sat in thought.

“Alright,” said Ji-Ji’s soft voice from the tree house. It was situated in a large Lunk Tree, the most common type of tree in the town, and it was very, very old, and very, very big. “There’s a way to do this. We know where we’ve searched, and that’s all the obvious places. I think I should try the unobvious places. Where would be an unobvious place? The tree itself…”

“But that’s not the tree house. Mr. Manchester specifically said the tree house,” called up Flo P.

But Ji-Ji wasn’t talking to them, she had been talking to herself. They could still hear her in the growing darkness.

“I’ll go get a flashlight,” whispered Logan, and scurried off.

Ji-Ji’s voice was still talking. “…Then the only other place could be the floorboards. In the floorboards? That’s a place.” Ji-Ji began knocking around. Finally, the knocks stopped, and Ji-Ji said to her friends, and Logan, now returned with the flashlight, “I may have found it! Run; get a hammer and a crowbar or whatever plies off wood! Oh – and a saw!”

Logan ran off to find the tools, and Saraha and Flo P stuck their heads in the tree house to see what Ji-Ji had found. Ji-Ji was triumphantly pointing to a board.

When Logan got back, the crew hammered and pulled and wrenched at the board, until it finally sprang loose (though this took an inordinate amount of time, as Logan was very inept at using tools).

They had just managed to get it off and bring the small board down to saw it in half when Mrs. Manchester came out. “Logan!” she said, surprised, as he had brought friends home for the first time in his life. “Now who are you three?”

“I’m Flo P,” said Flo P. “And this is Saraha – ” she indicated to Saraha “ – and Ji-Ji – ” she indicated to Ji-Ji.

“Hello, Mrs. Manchester! I’m pleased to meet you! I’m the director of Tongues of Acid,” Ji-Ji said, leaping to her feet.

Mrs. Manchster looked pleased with Logan’s friends, after Ji-Ji’s usual overly enthusiastic greeting. “Can I get some dinner for you?” she asked.

“I have to go home, soon,” said Saraha. “But thank you.”

“Us as well,” Flo P said.

“I hope to see you around,” said Mrs. Manchester, and went inside the house.

“Alright,” said Saraha, back to her brisk manner. “I do have to go home soon, it’s not like I didn’t want to eat your gross food, Logan, so let’s continue. I’ll saw.” She grabbed the saw and began to saw the board in half, and they saw Ji-Ji had been right; it was hollow.

Finally, when it was done, Saraha took a rolled yellow envelope, the size of an ordinary large yellow envelope in which you keep important documents. She handed it to Logan.

Logan unrolled it, and undid the clasp at the top. He reached in and pulled out a thin booklet of light-blue colour. On the front was labeled the words, ‘The Walrus Operation.’

TUNE IN NEXT WEEK FOR MORE LOGAN MADNESS… 

3: Logan Delivers the Truth

This is my third chapter. I’m not really dedicating it to anyone this time, but I just forgot to say in the beginning that every chapter really is dedicated to Logan, because he’s the whole reason this book is able to exist. Thank you, West-Band Logan, if you ever read this!

It was band practice again. A week had elapsed, and still Logan Manchester was confused. What had the men wanted, exactly? Logan knew who the Walrus was – he though he knew, anyway. He wanted to go to Tongues of Acid to be with his (so-called) friends one last time (even though everyone could easily agree that he was only the uncomfortable Pitchy-Clarinet player in the background) and then he wouldn’t put anyone in danger, even Saraha.

One may say Logan was being gallant, but Logan was not a gallant person. You see, pixies cannot be gallant. He was merely wanted to keep anyone from harming Saraha, because the lanky pixie knew that if Flo P were to be threatened, Ji-Ji and Saraha would step in harm’s way to protect their friend.

Ji-Ji began the band meeting by calling everyone to order. “Please settle down!” she cried. “I know we’ve all be shaken,” she said to the attentive room. “And we can’t find out who they were – the police said nothing – they refused to speak of them, actually. That strengthens my hunch that they may have been from the government, or somewhere official, working for the country.

“What they want, we still don’t know, but it seems like they were wrong. Commander Brack must have made a mistake, and gone off on some sort of far-fetched idea that one of us knew something. But I don’t want to that to get in the way of our music. So, in that case, please take out your James Blunt and let’s begin…” Ji-Ji finished her announcement. Logan assembled his Pitchy-Clarinet, and the rehearsal began.

At the end, Logan approached Ji-Ji. He said quietly, in his usual manner, “I need to quit the band.”

She stopped drinking and looked up. “Why’s that?” asked Ji-Ji, concerned.

“I have – I have family issues,” he said.

However, Ji-Ji still looked suspicious. “It doesn’t have anything to do with those men, does it, Logan? If that’s the reason, honestly, don’t think it’s connected to you.”

“Psh, no, no, that’s not it,” Logan said, attempting to be nonchalant, but pixies can’t pass things away by being nonchalant, so Logan stopped. “It’s just… I don’t want to talk about it,” he lied.

“Alright, but we’ll be sad to see you go. Goodbye then, Logan.”

Logan nodded, and took one last look to the music room, then walked lankily out. However, as he marched home, a terrible idea struck him. What if Commander Brack eventually found out that he was connected to the Walrus, and he tortured Flo P in the process to get information about him? This was the last straw. Logan decided: he was going to tell Flo P everything.

Logan turned around and ran back. He dropped his Pitchy-Clarinet by the entrance, and scrambled into the music room where Flo P, Andrew, another Screech player, Saraha, and Ji-Ji were all clearing away the stands and packing up.

Andrew, Saraha and Flo P looked surprised to see him, but Ji-Ji smirked as if she’s expected it all along and gave him a knowing look. “I need to talk to you, Flo P, and Ji-Ji and Saraha too, if you want,” Logan said urgently. They went out into the hall, Andrew looking upset, as he was not being included.

“Look,” Logan said in a straight forward manner, most unlike him. “When you said that the men weren’t look for me last week, you were wrong. They were right. I do know who the Walrus is – or I think so, at least. And it’s not fair if I leave now, because then they’ll come looking for you when I leave, and they will find me eventually.

“Anyway, the Walrus is my father. Well, part of the Walrus is, anyway. I really don’t know much, but I’m almost certain I’m correct. My father was named Walter Manchester. He worked for a secret lab. I remember before he left he was working on a project, and the file was on his desk once while he had gone to the bathroom. It was labeled, ‘The Walrus Operation.’”

Saraha and Ji-Ji and Flo P looked astonished.

“Are you fooling me? You’re sure you’re not… pulling my leg or something?” Saraha asked. “So, in the end… They broke my flute because of some crap document!”

Flo P gave her friend a piercing look. “Do you know what the document’s about, Logan? Do you know where it is, too?” asked Flo P.

“No. Though I have one idea. I knew it was top-secret, though, and I’m pretty sure the government wasn’t behind it. Before he left, my dad told me that if I was ever bothered or there was a crisis, I should look in my tree house, and give the secret up. He said no more. I don’t know if it’s connected, but I’ll check; it’s worth a shot.”

THE PROBLEM GROWS… WHAT IS ‘THE WALRUS OPERATION’? THIS TIME NEXT WEEK, “THE LUNK TREE”!

2: The Walrus

Anyway, here comes the first REAL chapter, or at least the first kind of long one. Okay, then, this chapter is dedicated to Ji-Ji – the ORIGINAL Ji-Ji – who DOES have raven black, silky hair, despite her protests.

Logan was brushing his messy, mousy hair. He looked in the mirror and sighed. “Flo P, today I may see thee,” he said to himself. He picked himself up, and went downstairs to get his Pitchy-Clarinet and sheet music. Then he got in the car, and Mrs. Manchester drove him to his Tongues of Acid band.

When he got there, he searched for Flo P, without making it seem obvious. But there she was, in all her shining glory, and his eyes feasted on her like maggots feasting on a dying cow.

“Attention everyone!” Ji-Ji called from the front of the hall. “Please get into your seats – we’re starting our first new piece…” As Ji-Ji talked away about key signatures and tuning, Logan was seized by a strange feeling.

“STOP!” he cried violently. “I mean, stop!” he said, quelling back into his usual awkward self.

“Yes, Logan? Is there something you’d like to say?” Ji-Ji prompted in a motherly way.

Logan stood, and walked to the podium. He could feel all eyes on him, and a shy voice at the back of his head said, ‘No, Logan, don’t do it!’ But it was trumped by another voice, far stronger, booming, ‘Do it for Flo P! Claim her for your own, or all the others will flock to her!’

“I would like to speak,” said Logan. He gathered his thoughts, and looked round the room, where he finally locked eyes with Flo P. She was looking admiringly up at him.

“I didn’t know how to express myself before,” said Logan, staring into Flo P’s eyes. “And I wanted to say this before I lose the only girl I… well, who I –”

But that was all cut off when the glass bay windows of the music room shattered, and bullets sprayed the room. Twenty or so black-dressed men stormed in. They trained their guns on movement, while all the kids ducked under their fallen stands and chairs. Glass and music sheets littered the floor.

“Where is he?” shouted one of the men. “WHERE IS THE WALRUS?”

Logan looked up, surprised, and desperate to get to Flo P to see if she was all right, but then he attention was taken from that when he saw a gun barrel inches from his nose. “What’s your name, son?” said the man holding the gun menacingly.

“Lo – Logan,” he said.

“Logan what?”

Logan couldn’t speak. He couldn’t think because his brain was screaming for him to run and duck, and he could feel the blood pumping in his ears. There was something wet trickling down from his scalp, where he knew glass shards must have landed. A petrified voice came across the room:

“His name is Logan Pratz, and leave him alone!” she lied. Flo P was standing up defiantly, quivering from shock and fright, but she still glared at the man. “And may I ask what your name is?”

The man laughed a terrible, cold laugh. “I’m Commander Brack. These are my men. Now, let me ask again – WHERE IS THE WALRUS?” He stared at Flo P, and then turned to Logan. “I have a feeling you know.”

“I don’t know who the Walrus is.” Logan tried to sound rebellious, too. He tried to keep his voice steady, and not to wipe away the blood that was still trickling down and tickling his forehead. He forced himself to look into Commander Brack’s eyes.

They were steely, like cold iron, and glared down at Logan. Just by looking at him, with his receding grey hairline and tall, rippling body, he could feel this man was full of hate. But he drowned these thoughts.

“Please, sir, we don’t know what you’re talking about!” said Ji-Ji, who had bravely spoken up. “We’re just kids – this is a band we’ve created – I’m the director of it, and I don’t know anything about Walruses.”

Commander Brack gave Ji-Ji a withering look. “Very well then,” he said. “But I’ll be keeping my eyes on you kids, and don’t you forget it. ONE of you is hiding something, and I will find out and track you down if it’s the LAST THING I DO! TROOPS, OUT!” he said.

The men turned and duck-marched out, their guns hanging at their sides. The blood in Logan’s ears was pumping even harder after his narrow escape. He heard several people breathing slowly, and someone whistled through their teeth.

“No!” cried Saraha. “My Uteflay – it’s broken! Oh, damn them! How much will I have to spend to buy another? And this one was so expensive.” She turned to Ji-Ji. “Is your Screech broken? I can’t believe this. I wonder who they were.”

Logan’s eyes met Flo P’s. He looked at her sadly, but knew he could not go on making his announcement. It was too close. He had to get home, and think. If he wanted to spare Flo P from the strange men, he had to never talk to her again. Not now… Not yet…

WHO IS THE WALRUS? WHO IS COMMANDER BRACK? FIND OUT NEXT WEEK IN, “LOGAN DELIVERS THE TRUTH”!