Vortex (22 page)

It grew louder. And louder.

When the first round of shells fell, their reverberations knocked them both off their feet - for a minute, Ben thought it had been a direct hit, but when he realized that they were still in one piece, he pushed himself painfully to his feet to start kicking at the door again.

Annie, however, had beaten him to it. She was standing a couple of metres from the door, a look of intense concentration on her face as she raised her arms in a way that immediately reminded Ben of how she had looked when he had walked into her bedroom only a few days ago.

'Stand back,' she said under her breath.

A Tankbuster screamed overhead.

'This is our last chance, Annie,' Ben whispered. 'Make it a good one.'

'I'll do my best.' Another bomb blasted nearby.

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and launched herself at the door. With an enormous crack, the wood splintered down the middle.

Ben's eyes widened, and without waiting for any instruction from Annie he started kicking down the splintered wood. It fell away from the door with surprising ease, and within seconds there was a gap through which they could all squeeze.

The two of them looked back at Joseph. He was staring around the hut, as though listening for something he couldn't hear, and he hadn't even seemed to notice that they had broken their way out, so they ran back to him and with all their strength pulled him to his feet, then dragged him towards the door and pushed him through the hole.

And for a split second they stood perfectly still, taking in the scenes of devastation around them.

It was like a war zone. The noise was deafening; clouds of thick dust surrounded them; planes scorched overhead, firing the depleted uranium shells in what seemed like a completely random way. As soon as they hit the earth they exploded into massive craters, or destroyed huts, blasting them into piles of rubble. Like rabbits in headlights, the three of them stood still, agog at the scenes of destruction. There were twice as many planes as last time, twice as many bombs - and there was nowhere to run and hide. They were in the middle of a huge area of grassland, and the forest they had skirted around was a long way distant.

'What are we going to do?'
Annie screamed.

'I don't know!'
shouted Ben. He looked desperately around. Ammo was falling as far as he could see - it would take precious minutes they didn't have to run from the field of war and it would be like running into a hailstorm of deadly firepower . . .

And then his eyes fell upon the tank.

It was about thirty metres away, heavy and imposing; as far as Ben could tell it looked identical to the Chieftain Mark 10 Annie had pointed out yesterday. It was old and spattered in mud, but still looked awesome and threatening, the barrel of its enormous gun pointing belligerently out at a forty-five-degree angle. Maybe they could get some protection inside there, Ben thought to himself; who knows, it might even be operational.

Annie was looking at him, and seemed to know what he was thinking. 'Let's go for it!' she shouted. They each grabbed one of Joseph's arms and hustled him in the direction of the huge armoured vehicle. They were only metres away from the hut when a burst of shells fell directly on top of it, and the whole thing exploded, sending huge, ugly splinters of wood flying that missed them only by a miracle.

They ran even faster towards the tank.

'What are our chances of surviving a direct hit?' Ben yelled at Annie, his voice hoarse from trying to make himself heard above the sound of the planes.

'Not good,' she replied, 'with or without the tank. But at least we'll be protected from shrapnel and flying debris if we get inside.'

'OK. How do we get in?'

'Up the top.'

Annie clambered onto the khaki chassis of the tank while Ben helped Joseph up the side before climbing up himself. His cousin lifted a metal disc hinged onto the turret, and the three of them dropped inside the tank, then closed the top behind them.

The interior of the Chieftain was like nothing Ben had ever seen - a metallic, industrial mess of displays, pedals and levers, wires and buttons. It was dingy - the only light coming through a small peephole in front of him that gave a limited amount of vision. A worn-out padded seat with holes in it was situated in the middle of the tank, in front of the controls, and Ben took his place there. As soon as he sat down, there was a massive explosion nearby: the whole tank seemed to shudder, and the three of them were knocked roughly against the metal walls. Annie cried out in pain, and Ben moved to see that she was OK; Joseph was already there, however; his eyes were suddenly alert again as he held her firm to stop her hurting herself as a result of a second explosion that rocked the tank once more.

'We're no safer in here than we were out there,' Joseph said. 'We need to get away.'

'Too right,' Ben said grimly. He looked at the jumble of mechanical equipment in front of him. They meant nothing.

'There should be a starter button somewhere,' Annie said through clenched teeth.

Ben scoured the controls. Sure enough there was a large, brown button in front of him. He shrugged, took a deep breath, and hit it.

To Ben's total surprise, the noisy engine coughed and spluttered into life. Outside, there was another deafening explosion.

'Drive it!' Annie screamed. 'Get us out of here!'

'I don't know how!'

'The pedals,' she yelled at him. 'One's an accelerator, one's a brake. Steer left and right using those red levers on either side.'

Ben located everything she was talking about. Sure enough, on each side of his seat there was a lever, not unlike the handbrake of a car. He gripped them firmly, peered through the viewing window, and gingerly pressed his foot down on the accelerator. The Chieftain shuddered into movement.

'Faster, Ben. We've got to get out of here.'

Ben pressed harder and the tank accelerated. Just then, however, there was an explosion in front of them. Rubble sprayed everywhere, blocking Ben's vision, and he instinctively pulled hard on the right-hand lever. The tank swerved sharply; Ben released the lever to straighten up, but saw himself driving directly towards a hut. He swerved again, missing the building by a whisker. His heart was in his throat as he straightened up once more. In the distance he could see the forest, so he gritted his teeth and pressed the accelerator down full throttle. The tank sped away from the training field and the sound of the bombs grew marginally fainter.

'That,' Annie shouted, 'was a close shave!'

'I think we're clear,' Ben started to say, but before he could finish, something caught his eye. A small box nestled in among the controls in front of him started flashing red. There were words, and he squinted his eyes to read them.

REMOTE CONTROL GUIDANCE SYSTEM. OPERATIONAL.

He blinked, then pulled on one of the levers; it did nothing. He let go of the accelerator; the tank maintained its speed.

'Annie,' he shouted, unable to hide the panic in his voice. 'I've lost control.'

'What?'

'I can't control it. Look!' He pointed at the flashing warning sign. 'Something else has taken control of the tank. I can't steer. I can't stop.'

'I don't believe it,' Annie yelled.
'We're a moving target! We're being controlled by the RAF for the training exercise! WE'RE A MOVING TARGET!'

And as she spoke, the tank performed a sharp turn. 'We're heading back!' Ben shouted. 'We're heading back to the bombs!'

The roar of the planes and the crash of the explosions grew louder; the ground seemed to tremble.

'Joseph!' Ben shouted. 'You're the scientist. What do we do? How do we get control of the tank again?'

Joseph hauled himself to the front of the tank, but all he could do was stare at the remote control unit. 'I don't know,' he said.

'What do you mean, you don't know?'

'I can't start dismantling it now, Ben.' And as if to confirm what he had just said, the tank was thrown sideways onto one set of wheels, making them tumble around inside. Ben shouted in pain as one of the steering levers dug sharply into his ribs.

'Ben!' Annie called. 'Are you all right?'

'Fine,' Ben growled through gritted teeth. His mind was suddenly clear. The planes were actively targeting them now, but there was no way he was going to give in without a fight. He leaned forward, his body shuddering dramatically from the movement of the tank, and grabbed the box with both hands. He took a deep breath and then, with all his might, tugged on it. The metal dug sharply into the skin of his hands and he hissed with the pain, but rather than let go he tugged again.

And again.

And again.

Finally, with a great heave, he managed to pull the box away from its fittings. A tangled mess of wires sprouted from the back. 'Pull them,' Joseph shouted. 'Just pull the wires as hard as you can.'

Ben did as the old man said. A shower of sparks briefly illuminated the inside of the tank, but for a minute nothing seemed to be happening. The three of them looked at each other with undisguised fear.

And then the tank started to slow down.

'Quick, Ben,' Annie urged. 'Turn us round again.'