Survival Tails_The Titanic by Katrina Charman

Author:Katrina Charman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2018-03-20T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

MUTT

Sunday, April 14, 1912

11:40 PM

“What’s happening, Mutt?” Jack called sleepily, his eyes still half closed.

“Is Miss Clara back?” Violet asked with a yawn, having been woken by her brother.

“Not yet,” Mutt answered as he paced the floor, looking out along the corridor for any sign of King Leon. He didn’t know much about rats or their sense of danger, but he could feel something himself. Something that he couldn’t quite explain, deep in the pit of his stomach. He thought maybe it was just that he was tired or that his belly still wasn’t quite full despite the three bowls of oodle he had demolished. Or maybe it was just that he hadn’t found Alice yet, but the look in King Leon’s eyes when he’d left made Mutt believe that it wasn’t hunger causing his unease.

“Wake up, Cosmo,” Mutt said. “We need to find King Leon or Miss Clara and see what’s going on.”

Violet nudged Cosmo with her nose, and he woke with a start.

“Follow me,” Mutt told the kittens. “And stay close. If we see any humans, I’ll distract them while you three head to the upper decks and find Miss Clara.”

“I’m scared,” Cosmo wailed.

“It will be fine,” Violet told him. “Mutt will look after us, won’t you, Mutt?”

Mutt wanted to say yes, but his throat felt too tight. Instead he gave Cosmo a quick nod, then trotted along the corridor to a spiral stairway, hoping it would lead to King Leon.

On the next level down, Mutt found himself back at the long corridor that King Leon had called Scotland Road. He gave a short, sharp bark, hoping that King Leon would hear, and waited for a few breaths. When the rat didn’t appear, Mutt jerked his nose at the kittens and went down the next set of stairs onto F deck, past a room with a large pool, heading back toward the engines.

His ears pricked up as he heard something—a creaking noise that rose above the rumble of the engines and the firemen in the boiler rooms still loading the coal into the furnaces. It was almost like the scraping of claws down metal, but louder. Much, much louder. The ground beneath their feet shook and the great ship rattled and shuddered as though it had run aground.

“What is that?” Violet squeaked, huddling close to her brothers.

Mutt opened his mouth to answer, then he spotted King Leon racing toward them at full speed.

“What is it?” Mutt asked, his hackles raised. “What was that noise?”

King Leon held up a paw as he tried to catch his breath, but he didn’t need to say anything, because at that moment, a river of rats ran past them. Mutt counted thirty at least. They were closely followed by the distinct sound of rushing water, like the tide upon a pebble beach, which made his fur stand on end.

“We. Need. To. Run,” King Leon panted.

Above their heads a light flashed red. Wailing alarm bells rang out, echoing around the corridor and deafening Mutt so that he could barely hear the kittens’ screams.

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