Search for the Sunlight
Chapter 23

Six seconds was all it took for Harry to reach the plantation. On his arrival, he hugged his exhausted brother affectionately. Albeit under the scariest of circumstances, they were both relieved to be reunited again.

Meanwhile, the crippled Peckwood was falling like a stone from the sky. When Sherlock looked up to assess the situation, to his horror, the monster was almost upon him. He had seriously misjudged both the distance and the speed with which the unconscious creature fell. Basil watched helplessly from the gully as the officer dived for cover, but it was too late. The mighty beast hit the sand with a force that shook the ground, the impact of which caused the fire in its belly to erupt violently, reducing the surrounding air to a hot suffocating chemical soup.

At best, Sherlock had suffered serious injury, but if the intensity of the blast was to be taken into account, then he might even be dead.

Basil pulled his neckerchief up over his face to protect him from the dust and with a deep intake of breath, he raced across the sand to the spot where the Constable and the burning Peckwood lay. En route, he passed Harry and Herbert. They were travelling in the opposite direction, both struggling to carry the heavy lapsack full of marshmelons back to the gully.

“When you get yourselves sorted out, cover me,” Basil called out. “Fire as rapidly as you can and make every shot count!”

Thumbs up, Herbert turned to acknowledge Basil’s command, but as his comrade vanished eerily into the same black inferno that only moments before had consumed the officer, his gesture went unnoticed.

In the midst of the carnage, the smouldering giant lay motionless. Sherlock was barely conscious, but miraculously he was still alive.

Basil knelt down beside his broken friend and wiped the soot and the sweat from his brow. He straightened the officer’s battered helmet and placed a reassuring hand gently on his shoulder. “You’re going to be alright,” he said calmly.

Sherlock opened his eyes. In an attempt to see the extent of his injuries, he tried to sit upright, but when he saw the size and girth of the lifeless monster that lay across his legs, he fell back in despair. Would he ever walk again? He wondered.