Chapter Seven Senior Winner - Danica Davies

Last week quite a few of you guessed incorrectly that the author was Brian Falkner. If you had guessed that this week you would have been right!
You can download Brian's FABO bookmark by clicking on the image.

Here's Brian's Author Report:

Hi to all our fabo writers, what a great job you are all doing! The standard of the stories is just scary. I have really been enjoying reading them.

It is funny how the same story can head in such totally different directions.

Danica's winning entry in the senior section was great. Danica kept the characters' voices consistent in her chapter, and even expanded on the fairies' characters.

She kept the story progressing rapidly and finished with a great cliff-hanger ending.

What I really liked about the Junior Winner was the wonderful imaginative ideas Hayley brought to the story.

So well done all the entrants, and congratulations to Danica and Hayley. A copy of one of my books is your prize. You can choose which one you want, and just email us at Fabo to tell us your choice.

- Brian

Chapter Seven

by Danica Davies (St Hilda's Collegiate)

“All the tin foil! It’s gone!” Remy cried, his horror struck voice rising an octave. Lewis emitted a weak groan, and his knobbly knees quivered as he sank to the ground.

“I don’t want to turn into a monkey!”

Ummm’s bushy brows knitted together. Too Cool placed his sturdy hands on his hips.

“We’ve got to, like, stop them, dude!” Ummm stated the obvious, his spidery toes pawing the ground like he wanted to take off again.

“Totally!” Too Cool agreed, slapping his scarred palms together and causing a deafening echo.

“Okay… Remy inhaled a deep breath. The air was tinted with smoky gunpowder, making him splutter. “Ummm, you come with me, and Too Cool, you join forces with Lewis. We’ll split up and search this warehouse for Miranda and Giles!”

Judging by the unimpressed expression plastered over Lewis’ face, he didn’t appreciate the plan at all. His throat pulsing and beads of sweat peering out from between his locks, Lewis moped over towards Too Cool.

“Sick idea, dude!” Umm nodded enthusiastically, his lips parting to expose to rows of perfect, pearly fangs. “Let’s go!”

Remy and Ummm sprinted (or in Ummm’s case, flew) around what felt like a cross country of aisles. Remy tried to look professional, and took several deep breaths, before heading in the direction of the burning scent. He never achieved anything, though. Well, apart from many odd looks from Ummm.

Ummm on the other hand seemed right at home on this mission; his translucent wings fluttered effortlessly in the slight breeze, and Remy found himself wondering how two petite, minute wings could source the unbelievable strength to lift a fully grown man into the air.

After scurrying around the seemingly abandoned warehouse for what seemed like a millennium, Remy was prepared to give up then and there. He doubled over, sweat dribbling off his ears, his shirt clinging to his clammy back. He panted like a sodden dog for a second, before gazing up at the fairy with pleading eyes.

“Look, dude. Don’t give up! We’ll find them soon enough.” Ummm patted his sidekicks shoulder. To Remy, it felt like he’d been punched. Ummm wisely ignored the boy nursing his now throbbing shoulder.

Suddenly, there was a blast of scorching hot air. Remy sensed the hair on his head rise, and gas rippled through his stomach like ground shock.

“Whoa!” Ummm smirked, wheeling around to the direction of the mini explosion. “Sick stuff!”

Remy’s heart was pumping like mad, and he was positive that, any second now, it would leap out of his chest and scramble across the floor. Remy had no choice but to follow Ummm around another couple of towering aisles before they reached the source of the occurrence.

Miranda and Giles were situated around a rather large, floating machine. Bulky buttons and wonky knobs protruded from the glittering crimson coating. The two gorillas’s had their hairy backs facing Remy and Ummm, and Remy didn’t need to be told twice to keep the noise down.

Miranda was muttering nonsense to her buddy in a fluent tone. It took dazed Remy a moment or two before he clicked that the aliens weren’t speaking English. Or any other language known to mankind.

A sudden burst of anger flooded through him. Here, standing in front of him, were the universes two biggest traitors ever. Miranda and Giles had told him, promised him that they were only here to study the humans. As if they were on holiday.

Yeah, some holiday alright. Remy clenched his fists. In his books, holiday didn’t mean rewinding the world so that humans never existed. A real ‘Planet of the Apes’.

Remy was tempted to run up to his so called ‘friends’ and give them a piece of his mind. But no. He had to remain calm if he were to dispose of them in an orderly fashion.

Flip, what was orderly anymore? Here he was, investigating a tin foil warehouse for earth-dominating monkey aliens with a fairy policeman bigger then his dad! ‘Orderly’ and ‘Normal’ didn’t even apply in this situation! Rage took hold of him. It began as a bubble in his brain, and trickled down throughout his body until it created a murky swamp in his toes. He was a massive bulge of fire.

“ARGH!” he shrieked, and shot forward like a cannon. Wind exploded in his face as he pounced upon Giles. He only just managed to grab onto a handful of greasy brown hair when a mysterious force gripped him. Within the limit of a millisecond, the ground had met his feet, and Remy was cascading to the floor in agony.

Pain seared in his knees as he scrambled to his feet once more. Giles was facing him, a blank look wiped across his wrinkled face. His arm was outstretched, his pink forefinger pointing at Remy’s unprotected chest. Smoke spiraled into the air from his yellow, grimy nail. Remy gritted his jaw.

“TRAITOR!” he yelled through clenched teeth. Miranda flicked her head his way, and sent him a particularly smug smile. She patted the machine affectionately, and through the miniscule windows, Remy spotted a mountain of silver tin foil. So did Ummm.

“Stop right there!” he ordered, his voice rumbling around the four walls of the warehouse. Miranda stifled a giggle.

“Oh really?” she challenged, the uneasy charm of the gorilla entangling in Remy’s soul. “I don’t really fancy that idea. Giles, why don’t you give our guests a final warning?”

Giles flashed an evil grin, similar to the one the Jones Gang wore. “With pleasure.” He said, and from behind him, pulled out a remote that was flashing wildly.

“This is the disintegrator.” He informed, caressing the one neon button. “One more word, and I shall push the button, causing anyone within five miles around us to perish. How do you like that idea, eh? Simply spiffing I reckon.”

Liking his audiences stunned looks, he vaguely repeated, “One. More. Word.”

At that moment, Lewis and Too Cool burst out from behind a concealing aisle.

“REMY!” Lewis screamed.

Remy’s heart skipped a beat.

“No-“ he muttered, but the damage was well and truly done. He glimpsed the fire and hatred that danced in Giles’s cold eyes, before the ugly gorilla raised his hand up in the air, and slammed it down on the remote. Punching the button with all of his force…