The Bromeliad 2 - Diggers by Terry Pratchett

Author:Terry Pratchett [Pratchett, Terry]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Tags: sf

Chapter 9

III. The younger nomes spoke, saying, Would thatwe were the nomes our fathers were, to ride uponthe Truck, and what was it like.

IV. And Dorcas said, It was scary.

V. That was what it was like.

-From the Book of Nome, Strange Frogs II, v. III-V

It was pretty much like the cab of the truck that had brought them from the Store. It brought back old memories.

"Wow!" said Sacco, "And we all drove one of these?"

"Seven hundred of us," said Dorcas proudly. "Your dad was one of them.

You were in the back with your mothers. All you lads were."

"I'm not a lad," said Nooty.

"Sorry," said Dorcas. "Slip of the tongue. In my day girls stayed at homemost of the time. Not that I've got anything at all against them gettingout and about a bit now," he added hurriedly, not wanting another Grimmaon his hands. "I'm not against that at all."

"I wish I'd been older on the Drive," said Nooty. "It must have beenamazing."

"It terrified the life out of me," said Dorcas.

The others wandered around the cab like tourists in a cathedral, gawking.

Nooty tried to press a pedal.

"Amazing," she said, under her breath.

"Sacco, you get up there and take those keys out," said Dorcas. "The restof you, no lollygagging. Those humans could be back anytime. Nooty, stop making those brrrm-brrrm noises. I'm sure nice girls shouldn't makethose kind of noises," he added lamely.

Sacco swarmed up the steering wheel post and wrestled the keys out of theignition while the rest of the boys poked around in the cab.

Grimma wasn't with them. She hadn't wanted to come up into the cab. She'dgone very quiet, in fact. She'd stayed down in the dirt road with a sullen look on her face.

But it had needed saying, Dorcas told himself.

He looked around the cab. Let's see, he thought ... we've got thebattery, we've got the fuel, was there anything else the Cat needs?

"Come on, everyone," he called, "Let's be getting out of here. Nooty, stop trying to move things all the time. It'd take all of you to shiftthe gear lever. Come on, before the humans come back."

He made his way to the door and heard a click behind him.

"I said come on! What do you think you 're doing?" The young nomes staredat him, wide-eyed. "We're seeing if we can move the gear lever, Dorcas," said Nooty, "If you press this knob you can-"

"Don't press the knob! Don't press the knob!"

The first inkling Grimma had that something was going wrong was a nastylittle crunching sound and a change in the light.

The truck was moving. Not very fast, because the two front tires wereflat. But the dirt road was steep. It was moving all right, and justbecause it had started off slowly didn't mean there wasn't something hugeand unstoppable about it.

She stared at it in horror.

The dirt road ran between high banks all the way down to the big highwayand the railroad.

"I said don't press it! Did I say press it? I said don't press it!"

The terrified nomes stared it him, their open mouths a row of Os.

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