The Battle of the Werepenguins by Allan Woodrow

Author:Allan Woodrow [Woodrow, Allan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2021-08-17T00:00:00+00:00

24.

But Who Will Rescue the Rescuers?

Annika sat on the floor, her back resting against a cinder block wall in the PEWD waiting room. They had been stuck here for a day and a night. “We need to get out of here.”

“What’s the point?” said Blackburn, twiddling his thumbs. Annika had to admit he was quite good at it. “Bah, I knew this was a mistake. I should never have agreed to come with ye. I wanted to quit adventurin’, and I should have.”

“You’re a pirate. Adventuring is what you do.”

“In me youth, maybe. I’m too old for this sort of thing.”

Annika looked away. She was still mad at Blackburn for surrendering so easily. Once locked away, the pirate said it was better to live and fight another day, especially the part about living. To Annika, that sounded like a poor excuse. Bandits never surrendered! It was written in the Code of the Bandit, and she had no plans to change that section.

And what of Bolt? While they sat here, waiting, he could be anywhere. Captured. Hurt. All alone. He needed her; they were a team! He couldn’t defeat someone as powerful as this werepenguin dentist without her help. “Arrgh!” she screamed in frustration. It was the eighteenth time she had screamed in frustration that morning. “Arrgh!” she screamed again. Nineteen.

The waiting room was big but sparse. It had ten long plastic sofas, each the length of a whale. There was also a television in the corner that didn’t work, a telephone with no dial tone, and a radio that played only shrieks of terror. After turning it on, Annika had switched the dial off. There were layers of dust everywhere, and spiderwebs, and it smelled like mold.

There was one door into the room, but it had been locked after Annika and Blackburn had been pushed inside. They could hear a penguin guard on the other side of the door, wheezing. The guard had snored for a while, and Annika thought that was her chance to pick the lock and escape. But as soon as she had inserted her bobby pin into the keyhole, the penguin began wheezing again.

She heard commotion outside—a horde of penguins barking and running—and tensed. Maybe the birds would rush inside the room. If so, she would fight them. Although she didn’t have her knife—that had been taken away, as had Blackburn’s swordfish—she still had her bandit training.

But the outside sounds trailed away. Was something going on? Maybe something to do with Bolt?

She stood up, rigid, and went to the door, pressing her ear against it. She couldn’t hear any sounds now, not even heavy snoring. Had their guard run off, too? If she and Blackburn were ever going to escape and help Bolt, this was their chance!

She glanced at Blackburn, still twiddling his thumbs but in the other direction now. “I’m going to make a break for it.” She slipped a bobby pin from her hair.

“And then what?” asked the pirate. “Stealin’ that tooth is crazy. I say we go back to our boat and get out of here.

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