Adam and the Arkonauts by Dominic Barker

Author:Dominic Barker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

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CHAPTER 20

The alarm kept going all through the night. Adam, Calico Jack, Simia and Malibu were driven below deck in a vain attempt to escape the sound. But it followed them down into the cabins of the Ark of the Parabola and boomed through doors and portholes, refusing to be repelled by blankets thrown over heads and fingers drilled into ears.

Morning came and still the alarm rang. There was no sign of life on the deck of the Ark of the Parabola or in the streets of Buenos Sueños. Adam lay in his cabin with his face buried in a pillow, hands clamped over his ears, thinking it had to stop soon . . . then thinking it would never stop . . . then thinking if he counted to a hundred, a thousand, a million, it would surely stop. But the Dreadful Alarm was impervious to Adam and his thoughts. It rang and rang as the sun rose and as the sun set.

And the next night brought no respite. If anything, the air grew stiller and the sound grew louder – wave after wave bouncing off the mountain sides, swelling and growing and then descending with all its force on the city and on the port. By now Adam was finding it hard to remember what the normal world sounded like and was having to remind himself that once it had been free of the incessant ring.

On and on it rang. Sometimes Adam thought it was getting louder, sometimes quieter. But the truth was that it was never any different – except that now the sound didn’t feel like it was just outside his head. Now it was inside too. And the echoes were no longer against the walls of the mountains; they were against the sides of his own skull. The sound was like a swelling ball inside his head, which grew as it ricocheted back and forth and up and down until Adam couldn’t think any more. Was he losing his mind? Was he going mad? Was he . . . ?

It stopped.

Just as the first beam of sun streaked over the mountains and touched the top of the mast of the Ark of the Parabola, the alarm stopped.

Two nights and a day hiding from the dreadful sound in his cabin had driven Adam stir-crazy. He rushed up on deck.

Gentle rays of sunshine warmed his face. The taste of the sea was fresh and salty. All that remained of the Dreaful Alarm that had battered the city of Buenos Sueños for thirty-six long hours was a faint hum. The world felt new and bright. He smiled. And then he remembered the Doctor and Sniffage and his smile faded.

‘Cheer up, young ’un – it’s stopped, hasn’t it?’

Calico Jack emerged from the hatch. He went and stood by the rail, looking at the city and swallowing big lungfuls of air.

‘I was thinking about the Doctor and Sniffage,’ Adam explained.

‘That’s no reason not to enjoy a beautiful morning,’ said Calico Jack.

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