eye and then closed them again. It made no difference. There was absolutely no light.
âFreaky isnât it?â Jay could hear that Zed was actually enjoying himself.
He had both Jayâs arms in his hands and he was flying along behind the container. Zed was even waving him from side to side.
âHold still!â Jay shrieked.
Zed stuck his tongue out, even though Jay couldnât see him.
âEveryone on board?â he shouted.
âDee here!â she shouted.
âKT here.â
âI donât like this!â said Emm.
âDonât let go of me!â XL thought.
âDonât worry little thing, I wonât let go!â Dee said to him.
âCurious,â XL thought to himself, âit seems they can hear me after all.â
The long run down the endless white corridor had one powerful effect. XL was now out of range of the telepathic dampening field. Xanax had created it to stop him communicating with anyone. First Emm and now Dee seemed to have heard some of his thoughts. He decided to try an experiment of his own.
âHow much longer is this going to take?â he asked into Deeâs head.
âHow long do you think this will last?â Dee shouted to the others.
âWho cares, itâs fun!â laughed Zed.
âWheee!â shouted KT wanting to look like he was having fun too. In reality his arms were getting very tired. He wasnât as strong as Zed.
âMy arms are killing me,â said Emm. Her heart was pounding. She tried to breathe slowly to calm herself down.
âMe too!â said Jay. He wasnât enjoying this. He was sure his arms were growing longer by the minute.
âI wonât let go of you. It doesnât matter how tired you get,â Zed tried to make him feel better.
âThanks.â
As they all clung on as hard as they could, XL felt pleased his experiment had worked. He would not admit to being afraid, but he thought it might be wise to put the thought of holding him tighter into Deeâs head. He thought it and immediately he could feel Deeâs grip tighten.
Deeâs arm wasnât tired. Her hammer was safely hooked over the rail so she couldnât fall. She kept her eyes closed because the wind stung them. Every now and again shepeeped open an eye. Once she thought she could see something ahead. It sped towards them.
âThereâs some light ahead,â she shouted. âIt might be a station. Hold on, weâre nearlyâ¦â
Bam! The container came to a halt. Dee, Emm and KT were all thrown forward onto the ground. Jayâs huge honker slammed into the back of the container.
âDow!â
Dee decided the best thing to do was to make sure the container didnât move again. She stood in front of it while Emm and KT stood up. Zed and Jay joined them.
The container had come to a halt behind another container. There was a queue of them leading up to the light.
âIâll go and have a look at whatâs happening,â Dee said as she handed XL to Emm. âYou all wait here.â
Dee crept up along the gap between the wall and the containers until she found the source of the light. She peeked. It was very bright after the dark tunnel they had been in. When her eyes adjusted, she could see she was in a docking port.
One by one, each container was rolled out of the dark corridor. A mechanical arm swung down, scanned a blank panel on the side of the container and beeped. A small truck drove forward, lifted the container and moved it onto one of the six spaceships docked at the port. As each container was placed on a ship, the shipâs doors were sealed and the spaceship took off.
Dee couldnât see any assistants; just machines working away, clicking and whirring to themselves. She leanedforward to see if anyone was there. A high-pitched alarm rang out. Dee realised it was a life form sensor and pulled back quickly. It stopped. She just hoped it had not gone