Then from out of the darkness, several sets of bright white lights appeared. They seemed to skim just above the ground and they were approaching fast.

“What are they?” Bom panicked, getting to his feet as if to run away.

With lightning speed, Faraday shot one arm out and gripped the back of the Captain’s armour. “Get down and be quiet,” Faraday ordered. Then looking at us with his black eyes, he added, “all of you.”

They pressed themselves flat to the floor and watched the lights approach out of the distance. By the time the hermit had noticed them, it was too late. Shielding his eyes against the glare of the lights, he watched as if frozen to the spot as they raced towards him. The sounds of emergency sirens filled the night. Zach peered around the edge of the rocks to see several masked men approaching at speed. On seeing them, Zach blinked and rubbed his eyes. At first glance, he thought they were riding on the backs of Bengal tigers. But after taking a second look, he realised the creatures they rode were, in fact, machines.

The tiger-like creatures were similar to motorbikes, and they bounded towards the hermit with emergency lights flashing and sirens screaming. Unlike the motorbikes Zach was familiar with back in Earth, these weren’t propelled forward on wheels, but just like a tiger, they raced forward on four powerful, robotic legs. Even their engines roared like the beasts they had been inspired by. The bikes were coloured black, but had orange and yellow flames painted along their flanks. It had been these markings which, at first glance, had given Zach the impression they were tigers. He guessed these were just one of the creatures Faraday had described as becoming entangled with the technology Cribbot had smuggled back into Endra, along with the animals.

They bounded through the night, their engines growling, their burning eyes acting as headlights in the darkness. They skidded to a halt, their giant metal paws spraying sand over the hermit. Zach noticed that one of the tiger-bikes had what looked like a sidecar attached to it, and this hovered above the ground. The masked riders dismounted and approached the skeletal man.

“Who are you?” one of the riders asked the man.

Zach watched the riders, and guessed they were like cops, as they were dressed all in black. They wore padded coveralls, which were tucked into sturdy-looking boots. Their heads were covered with hoods, which formed a tight seal around the black respirators which covered their faces. A circular shaped canister protruded from the side of these masks, and they made a deathly rasping sound, as they breathed in and out. Around their waists they each wore a belt. Their hands were covered in thick, black rubber gloves, which gripped what looked like guns.

“I’m just out here scavenging,” the hermit said, his voice sounding fearful.

“Under whose authority?” one of the riders demanded.

“I’m just looking for food…” the old man began.

“You need authority to be so close to the outer-rim,” another of the riders wheezed from behind his respirator. Then without warning, the lead rider pointed his gun at the hermit and shot him. The retort of the weapon echoed and bounced off the rocks that Zach and his friends hid behind. Bom gasped in horror, and Faraday was quick to clasp his hand over the Captain’s mouth.

“What was that noise?” one of the riders barked.

“I didn’t hear anything,” another said.

The rider who had shot the old man raised his gun again and made his way towards the outcrop of rocks.

Chapter Ten

Zach lay huddled next to his companions and held his breath. He willed himself to stay still, to not move an inch, as he heard those freaky cops marching towards him in the dark. If they had been prepared to murder the hermit for scavenging without permission, what would they do to Zachary and his friends should they be discovered? Bom’s heart slammed away beneath his metal breastplate. Neanna’s heart made a ‘boom-boom’ sound in her ears. It was so loud, she was convinced that they would hear its bloody beat.

As they marched closer to the rocks, Zach released the catch on his holster and drew one of his crossbows. Zach’s left arm was pressed against Bom and he could feel him trembling. Zach couldn’t hear a sound from Faraday, not even his breathing. But then again, did he breathe like the rest of them, Zach wondered. Was he dependent on lungfuls of oxygen to stay alive? Wasn’t he a machine after all?

The freaky cops’ footfalls stopped suddenly, as the sound of rustling could be heard a few feet from where Zach and his friends lay. Torchlight suddenly lit up the ground, only inches from Zach’s head. The light from their torches swept quickly by Zach and his friends, and then stopped.

“It’s just a desert rat,” one of them said, wheezing behind his respirator.

“Are you sure?” asked one of the others.

“It’s gone now.”

There was silence for a moment. Then, “Let’s keep moving.”

Zach continued to lay in the dark behind the rocks. He listened as they mounted the strange tiger-bikes. The sound of the bikes firing up was like a pack of tigers roaring in the night. Then they were gone, the noise of their metal paws bounding away into the dark.

Faraday got to his feet and peered about. Feeling secure that the immediate area was free from danger, he said, “Let’s go.”

Without any hesitation, the others got to their feet and followed him out from behind the rocks. Neanna headed over to the hermit who lay lifelessly on the ground, his face covered with sand, which blew across the floor of the desert.

Then looking back at Faraday, Neanna said, “You’re a doctor, right?”

Faraday just nodded his head.

“See what you can do to help this man, Faraday,” she said.

Faraday knelt down beside the hermit, and taking hold of the hermit’s bony wrist, he felt for a pulse.

“Is he dead?” Zach asked, peering over Faraday’s shoulder.

“No, he still has a faint pulse,” Faraday replied without a hint of emotion in his voice. He then reached into one of his coat pockets and rummaged around. After some searching, he produced a silver-looking object, which looked similar to a thimble. Faraday brushed the dust and sand from the man’s narrow chest, and then pulled the stake from the wound that pumped blood in a thick, black stream. He held it up to reveal that the metal tip of the stake was still lodged in the hermit’s chest. Faraday then placed the silver-looking thimble thing onto the hermit’s naked chest, covering the wound. Then, to Zach’s wonder and disbelief, the thimble-thing sprouted four little metal talons, two on either side. The thimble then began to spin round as it bored its way into the wound. Zach and the others watched as it disappeared into the hermit’s chest and out of sight. Zach glanced at William, who looked completely stunned.

“What’s that?” Zach asked Faraday in amazement.

“It’s called a surgery-spider,” he said back.

“A surgery-spider?” William woofed.

Then glancing back at Zach, Faraday said, “It’s similar to the keyhole surgery procedures they carry out on the sick on your side of the doorways. It painlessly enters the body and removes tumors, foreign objects…”

“Like the tip of a stake?” Zach breathed in wonder.

“Exactly…and then it repairs any damage to tissue,” Faraday explained.

“Will he survive then?” William was desperate to know.

“Maybe…but then again, maybe not,” Faraday replied, as he studied his patient. “It all depends how much damage has been caused inside. The surgery-spider’s good…but it can’t perform miracles.”

Zach and his friends watched in wonder as the top of the surgery-spider resurfaced and crawled away from the wound, settling on the hermit’s stomach. Its minute legs retracted and became still. Faraday plucked it off the man’s body. He turned it upside down, and Zach watched as the pointed tip of the stake rolled from the surgery-spider and into the palm of Faraday’s hand. He threw the tip away, placed the surgery-spider back into his coat pocket, and produced a bottle of clear liquid. He poured some of this onto the wound, and it oozed from the bottle like runny jelly. It plopped onto the hermit’s chest and began to fizz and smoke.

“It’s burning him!” Bom hissed.

“Just watch,” Faraday assured him.

The thick, gooey liquid began to froth, bubble, and then gradually dissolve into the man’s skin, taking with it the crimson coloured hole that the stake had made. Zach looked in awe, as there was no sign, no mark, in fact not even the smallest of scratches to show that this man had ever been shot.

Faraday briefly checked the hermit’s pulse again, placed the bottle of goo back into his pocket, and stood up.

“What is this thing?” Neanna suddenly said, breaking the silence.

Zach glanced over at the odd-looking car. He moved towards it, then realised, like the tiger-bikes he had seen, this wasn’t a car at all – but what appeared to be a giant beetle. Zach stood with his mouth open as he looked at its sleek design. It was hump-shaped with a hard shell, which shone black and turquoise beneath the moon. Instead of wheels, it had three black, bony legs which jutted from each side of its body. Where any normal car would have had a bonnet, this had a bulbous black head with two antennas protruding from it and what looked like a crank-handle sticking out front.

Faraday strode over, and with one hand, he lifted back the creature’s shell.

“Is this some kinda car?” Zach asked him.

“I guess,” Faraday said. “It’s what happens when technology and creatures get entangled together as they come through the doorways. Cribbot called it a beet-wagon.”

With the shell slid back, Zach peered inside. “Oh you’ve got to be kidding me!” he cried, as he saw the seats, the dashboard, and a steering wheel.

“C’mon,” Faraday urged the others. “Those dead peacekeepers could come back at any moment.”

“Dead peacekeepers?” Neanna asked him.

“Peacekeepers turned bad by black magic,” Faraday said, climbing in behind the wheel.