The Invasion of Crooked Oak by Dan Smith

Author:Dan Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781800900028
Publisher: Barrington Stoke

CHAPTER 7

A Terrible Discovery

To Pete’s surprise, the door to the BioMesa building was unlocked. He pulled it open and sneaked in first. “It’s so hot in here,” Pete said as he felt the wall, searching for a light switch. When he found one, he flicked it, expecting the place to light up like a Christmas tree, but nothing happened.

“No power.” Pete remembered how Mrs Finney had reacted to the beam of sunlight in her kitchen. “Or they took out the lightbulbs.”

“It stinks,” Krish said, following Pete inside. “I’ve changed my mind. I don’t like this.” He turned to leave, but Nancy held on to him.

“We need to stick together,” she said.

They took out their phones and switched on the torches, but the huge room was so dark it swallowed the light. Everything was black, black, black.

The deeper they went, the stronger the mouldy smell became. “The ground feels funny,” Nancy said. She shone the torch at her feet. “It’s spongy.” She crouched, bringing the torchlight closer to the floor. Twists of fine fibres formed a miniature landscape of hills and forests covering the ground. When Nancy shifted her feet, the awful mouldy smell wafted up at them.

“It’s some kind of fungus.” Nancy put out her hand.

“Don’t touch it,” Krish said. “Don’t touch anything. We should tell someone about this.”

“In a minute.” Pete shone his torch ahead. “I think I see something.”

In the centre of the building was the lower section of the drilling rig. It looked like tall scaffolding over the roof outside, but inside it was totally different. Huge black vines snaked around it, forming a smooth, shining black trunk. They twisted up to the ceiling and spread out like branches. When Pete directed his torch at them, the vines shrank away from the light.

“We should leave,” Krish said. “I don’t want to investigate this any more.”

Nancy shone her torch at a huge hole beneath the rig, where the black fungus had erupted in vines from the earth. “Maybe the fracking disturbed it,” Nancy said. “Released it from underground, I mean.”

“Keep away,” Krish said in a low, scared voice.

“What about the people who came on the tour last night?” Nancy said. “If they came in here, they must have seen this. The way they’re acting, and the way my mum and dad are acting … It’s got to be connected to this.”

Pete moved closer to the main stem of the giant fungus. The ground squished and squelched with every step. “You’ve got to see this,” he said.

Hundreds of bent limbs burst out from the spongy trunk. At the end of each limb was something that looked like a claw. Most of the claws were empty, but one or two gripped pods the size of grapefruits. They were deep purple and covered with thousands of tiny white spots.

“They look like spore pods,” Krish whispered. “Like you find on a fungus, but bigger.”

“So what were my mum and dad doing in here just now?” Nancy said.

“This might be a clue.” Pete called them over to a long table that was piled with boxes.

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