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Slowly we both started to climb the bank. At the top we waited and then, just when Abs least expected it, we jumped up and plastered him with red paint. He must have been hit with five balls.
    â€˜That’s not fair!’ he moaned. ‘I wasn’t ready . . .’
    â€˜Sit down!’ replied Emma triumphantly, before giving me a high-five.

    â€˜What next?’ I asked. ‘Where’s everyone else?’
    â€˜I don’t know,’ said Emma, ‘but we should try to get across the stream. Wendy said to head for the Blue base.’
    â€˜Cool!’ I said. ‘Follow me . . .’
    We found the bridge and crossed it without seeing anyone else from the Blues. But we didn’t spot anyone from our team either. And I suddenly realized we didn’t have a radio with us.
    â€˜We’ll have to find Chris or Mr Singh,’ said Emma.
    â€˜They’ll be heading for the Blue base too,’ I told her. ‘Why don’t we just meet them there?’
    â€˜OK,’ she said. ‘Do you know where to go?’
    The problem was that we didn’t have a map either. I looked straight ahead, which was north, and then off to the left a little bit.
    â€˜Mr Singh said to go north-west,’ I explained. ‘So . . .
this
way.’ I nodded towards another spinney that was thick with dark and twisted trees. It looked really spooky.
    â€˜After you,’ Emma told me, looking a bit worried.
    â€˜I’ve got those stickers,’ I told her. ‘We’ll stick them to the trees just in case we get lost.’
    â€˜Just like Hansel and Gretel,’ she replied.
    I pulled out the stickers and stuck one to the first tree we reached. Now we couldn’t lose ourselves and go missing . . .

HALF AN HOUR later it had started raining again and we were lost.
    â€˜I said we should have turned right!’ protested Emma.
    â€˜We did!’ I replied, getting annoyed.
    We’d turned right and left and right again and it was still no use. No matter what we did we just found ourselves deeper and deeper into the spinney. The branches were sopping wet and huge droplets of rainwater were thudding on top of my head.
    â€˜Where did we put the last stickeragain?’ Emma asked.
    â€˜I can’t remember,’ I told her. ‘It was back there somewhere.’ I gestured to the left with my head.
    â€˜What are we going to do?’ she asked.
    I thought for a minute. The map that I’d seen hadn’t been
that
big. Surely if we just kept going in a straight line we’d come out somewhere. But that was part of the problem. The trees and bushes were
so
dense that we couldn’t be sure we were actually moving straight ahead.
    â€˜Let’s go back the way we’ve just come,’ I said.
    â€˜This is like one of those silly movies,’ replied Emma.
    â€˜What movies?’ I asked.
    â€˜Silly ones – I just told you. Knowing
our
luck, there’s probably some monster lurking in the trees waiting to eat us for dinner,’ she moaned.
    â€˜Don’t be so daft,’ I told her.
    Suddenly there was a loud cracking sound.
    â€˜What was that?’ asked Emma with a start.
    I spun round to see where the noise had come from, but I couldn’t see anything.
    â€˜What is it?’ Emma asked again.
    â€˜Nothing,’ I replied. ‘Come on . . . let’s go this way.’
    I led her to the left, away from the noise. I was sure it was nothing but I was still a bit spooked out, mostly because of what Emma had said about silly movies. But they were just films. There was no way there could be anything out there. That was just stupid.
    CRASH!!!!!!!!!
    â€˜Oh, my God!’ shrieked Emma. ‘There’s something out there!’
    This time I was properly scared. Whatever had made the second noise was reallyclose by. I lifted my paint gun and held it in front of myself.
    â€˜Let’s