rocks, soon after the explosion.’ The reporter stuck a microphone under the nose of a man with blood running down one side of his face. ‘Father McCabe, tell us what you saw.’
‘Hundreds and thousands of ancient monsters have been released. People are going to be slaughtered, eaten, and innocent people’s blood will flow on the streets…’ He raised a shaking finger and pointed at the rock, shouting, but the reporter had lost interest. He looked earnestly into the camera. ‘Whether or not the tale of the monsters is true, there is a mystery about the explosion. The mining company denies setting explosives, and has issued a statement deploring the destruction of this great wonder of the Australian landscape. Back to you, Dave.’
Behind him, Father McCabe’s hand shakily showed a black, gaping hole in the half-destroyed rock.
Liz no longer heard what was being said; her mind was focused on the hole in the ruined Wave Rock. The old man’s words echoed inside her head over and over again. He had looked like a mad prophet, standing with his arm outstretched like that; and his words had the ring of truth.
4
Picnic
Sunday, 80 Kilometres East of Perth
The next day, Sunday, was fine. Liz and her family went to have a picnic at Lake Leschenaultia.
Sitting on the back seat of her mother’s car, Liz watched the landscape gradually change as they drove on: from the city high-rise to suburban houses, from car yards and shopping centres into hills, from concrete to trees. Their car climbed to the top of the hill, and there, in thick bush, was their picnic destination.
People were everywhere, carrying huge eskies (cool boxes), fold-up chairs and tables, picnic rugs, cricket bats, and footballs. Australians loved outdoor activities.
Seeing Sue run towards their car, Liz rolled down her window and waved. Sue told them that they had a good picnic spot. As Sue directed, Liz’s mother parked her car close to the foreshore picnic area.
Fred hadn’t come. He rarely joined these kinds of family activities; too busy doing other more important things, as Sue explained each time. Even though she knew this, Liz had hoped he might call in for some unknown reason; she could think of millions of reasons.
Liz and Henry helped their parents carry things out of the car, and got the picnic area set up with all the paraphernalia Julie considered essential for outdoor living.
‘Julie, would you like some ice?’ Sue’s mother asked Liz’s mother. She sat on the black fold-up chair, holding a glass of white wine.
‘What a good idea! Linda, you are so organised,’ Liz’s mother said.
‘Wen, what about a beer?’ Sue’s dad asked Liz’s dad.
‘Oh, sorry, beer? No, thank you, I’ve got one here.’ Liz’s dad took a bottle of beer out of the esky and put it in a beer-holder with an Australia flag and kangaroo on it, a Christmas present from Liz. Although he often seemed lost in his own world, Liz noticed he had become worse recently, particularly today; he mumbled some words to himself from time to time. Mandarin, she assumed.
Looking at her father, Liz sighed inwardly. She didn’t blame him for his lack of ability and disinterest in socialising with the others because of his introverted personality and not-so-advanced language skills, but it was his lack of courage that bothered her. For instance, once when Liz and her father were walking in the park, she overheard a conversation behind their backs. ‘Those Chinks come here and take away our jobs. We should send all of them home.’ Liz was angry and wanted to shout at the people, but her father had dragged her away. She wished that he was better at sticking up for himself.
Liz suddenly felt she had to get away from the wine and the beer and the whole plastic outdoor scene. She jumped to her feet. ‘I’m going for a walk. Anyone coming with me?’ Without waiting to find out, she started walking along the lake’s white sand beach. Behind her, footsteps hurried and then slowed to her pace. Sue and Henry joined her.
Even though it was winter the weather was quite warm, and the air was still. Liz breathed in deeply, trying to shake off her mood.
’Are you okay?’ Sue asked.
‘Sure. Let’s just go a bit further.’ Liz headed away from the lake, and they walked a few minutes into the thick bush.
In front of them, the bush suddenly became sparse, like a deserted island in the sea, with dead tree trunks sticking out of the white sandy ground.
Liz took out her new calligraphy pen, the birthday present from her father. A light beam shot into the sky. ‘Did you see the flash?’ Liz asked Sue.
‘Yes, I did,’ said Sue.
‘It must be the reflection of sunlight,’ said Henry.
‘I don’t think so; I saw it last night,’ said Liz.
‘So what’s unusual about it?’ asked Henry.
‘I’m not sure if it’s just my imagination, but I felt it vibrate and get hotter in my pocket,’ replied Liz.
‘Why did you bring it with you to a picnic?’ asked Henry.
‘I couldn’t stop thinking about it last night; there are so many unusual things about it. I have a strong feeling this is not just an ordinary pen,’ said Liz.
Henry shrugged. ‘Well, we can’t work out the secret by standing here. Let’s go and do something. What about canoeing on the lake?’
‘Good idea,’ Liz agreed. They followed Sue towards the lake. Sue suddenly stopped and screamed. Liz saw a snake, at least three metres long, in front of them.
‘Keep still, Sue, don’t move, be cool. Remember snakes can’t see well…if we don’t move …it’s all right now.’ The snake slithered into the bush.
‘Liz, get me out of here. What if there’s more, like yesterday?’ Sue was starting to panic.
‘Take it easy, Sue, we’re on our way out. Just follow me.’ Henry led the way, and everyone followed.
Ten minutes later, they were still surrounded by bush.
‘I thought we only walked into the bush about 200 metres,’ said Sue.
‘Yes, it’s a bit strange. We should have been out ages ago,’ said Liz.
Henry took over. ‘Let’s use our brains. Obviously we walked in the wrong direction in the past ten minutes, but it’s not a big deal; I’d say we’re less than half a kilometre away from the lake foreshore. This is obviously not the right direction.’ Henry pointed in the direction they just walked from.
‘I remember we were heading east when we walked into the bush,’ said Liz.
‘Sun is there, so that must be west. Let’s go!’ Henry led the way.
‘We’re back to where we were,’ Liz announced twenty minutes later.
‘I don’t think I can walk any more, and I’m thirsty.’ Sue sat on the ground after checking for snakes.
‘I’m sure that’s west.’ Henry looked at the sun again. ‘I don’t understand how this happened. We should be able to get to the lake within ten minutes.’
‘Not if we’re wandering around in circles,’ Sue imitated Henry’s voice.
‘Very funny, ha ha, so you tell us which way we should go.’ Henry sat down too.
‘We don’t even know which directions we’ve tried.’ Liz flopped beside Henry and Sue.
‘Henry, help…’ Sue’s voice trailed off.
‘Another snake?’
‘No, it’s a spider.’
‘Sue, it’s just a tiny one. Please don’t be so babyish and scared of everything,’ said Henry.
‘Henry, stop it. Sue, sit here with me.’
With her back to the deserted white land, Liz felt quite hot after all the fast walking of the last half hour or so. ‘That’s a nice breeze.’
Sue’s face changed. Liz thought she had seen another spider, but then she saw Henry’s face change too; she turned her head and suddenly felt freezing cold.
5
The Unexpected
Between the dead tree trunks sticking out of the bare white sandy ground, Liz saw thousands of creatures emerge from the bushes, moving towards them. The sky had turned dark, chunky black clouds blocked the sunlight, and strong wind started
building up. Heavy rain would pour down at any moment.
Burying her head against Henry’s chest, Sue clung to him tightly. Henry’s eyes opened wide, and his jaw dropped. Liz somehow managed to keep watching what was happening in front of her.
In the dim light the creatures kept coming, straight towards them.
As the first group drew closer, Liz could just make out that they were human. Their clothing looked strange, but she was too scared to work out what was wrong with it.
At last the two figures at the head of the crowd were only metres away. The one on the left was a tall, thin person. Despite his dirty worn-out clothes, Liz could tell that he represented some kind of authority. When she looked at the man beside him, she almost fainted. His head was not a human but a bear head. Under normal circumstances, she would have thought it was somebody with a bear mask on, but she could clearly see it was a real bear head and the body was a real human body.
A red kangaroo appeared, hopping into the clearing hesitantly. The bear monster leapt forward, and struck it with his huge palm; the kangaroo, over two metres tall, was knocked high in the air, landing twenty feet away on the ground, dead.
As the bear monster walked over and began devouring his prey, the tall thin man applauded, and then walked towards Liz and her friends.
Liz’s heart pounded violently, and her palms became sweaty and sticky. She put her hands into her pocket to wipe the sweat away, and as she did, her fingers touched the calligraphy pen.
The pen felt hotter than before.
The monsters were screaming, stamping, cheering and whistling. To her surprise, Liz could understand what they were shouting. ‘Vampire King! Vampire King! Vampire King!’
The tall thin man, the Vampire King, was only feet away.
Feeling the calligraphy pen in her pocket jump (or maybe she jumped herself), Liz had an idea. Suddenly standing, she held her pen, pointing it at the Vampire King.
Nothing happened.
The Vampire King started laughing. Liz still held the pen towards him. He stretched his arm and grasped the pen.
There was a loud explosion.
A rainbow light beam jetted from the calligraphy pen, shot into the cloudy sky, and tore the dark clouds apart, letting a thin ray of the sunlight through.
Holding his hand as if it had been burned, the Vampire King barked, ‘Kill them! All of them!’
Waving their long sharp claws, three vampires ambled towards Liz and her friends. Under the dim light, holding on to Sue and Henry, Liz stared hopelessly at the approaching vampires and their sharp fangs.
The vampires’ claws inched towards Liz and her friends. They were intentionally prolonging the process of killing their victims, to enjoy their terrified expressions. Liz held tightly to her friends and prepared to die.
A tree branch cracked, making Liz turn her gaze upwards. A black-haired woman appeared on the treetop from nowhere. She broke a thick tree branch, like snapping a corn cracker, and waved it at the three monsters near Liz. They were swept high into air, landing twenty feet away with heavy thuds. The branch did not touch a hair of Liz.
The black-haired woman held her broken branch and jumped seven metres to the ground. She landed soundlessly, like a cat; holding the huge tree branch in one hand, she used her other hand like an axe to chop the spurs off. It seemed that her hand only moved once or twice, but the flying tree leaves and twigs told a different story; in a few seconds, she turned the branch into a two-metre stick with a pointed end.
The Vampire King neither moved nor spoke; nobody moved.
From a standstill, the black haired woman leapt to stand in front of Liz. ’Please give me the calligraphy pen,’ she said, holding out her hand for it.
Liz gasped: it was Li Ping, her Tai Chi teacher! But there was no time to talk, and Liz passed the pen over.
Sadness appeared briefly on Li’s face. Running around Liz and her friends, she painted invisible lines and circles on the ground and in the air. Liz felt the pen touch her face a few times. A few