Web of Fire Bind-up Read Free Page B

be someone there who could tell him where he was. Someone who would help him find his way home.
    Half an hour later, he slipped and fell exhausted into a muddy pool. The city seemed no closer than when he had started out.
    Spitting out a mouthful of foul-tasting water, he raised his head wearily and stared out across the bleak and desolate landscape. It was then that he noticed a single light in the distance, away to his left. It seemed to be getting nearer all the time. Sam gradually becameaware of a faint rumbling sound and the ground beneath him began to shake. It was only when he had scrambled to his feet and was running towards the fast approaching light that he realised it was a train.
    Crouching behind a clump of reeds only a few metres from the track, Sam watched as the long silver train pulled smoothly to a halt. The windows were lit from within by a dull orange glow but there were no obvious signs of life on board.
    Shivering with cold, he decided to make his way to the front of the train. He would see if he could find the driver, explain that he was lost and try to get a lift into the city. As he was about to step out from behind the reeds, however, a series of strange thumping sounds from inside the train made him pause. Seconds later, the doors hissed open and to his horror twenty or thirty dark, dog-like shapes leapt from the train and began running across the marshes, snorting and growling as they went.
    Sam immediately felt his muscles tense with fright. Every instinct told him that his life was now in danger. He knew that these strange creatures were searching for something and that, whatever their plans, staying out on the marshes with them was not an option. And so, fuelled by his fear, he took a deep breath, ran from the cover of the reeds and threw himself desperately onto the train. Moments later the doors hissed shut and the train slid away into the darkness.
    As it began to gather speed, Sam breathed a sigh of relief and began cautiously to look around. Orange lights ran the length of the ceiling and merged together at the far end of a tubular steel carriage. Here there was an oval hatch which connected to another carriage and through it he could see many others stretching away into the distance. The right-hand side was divided up into a series of compartments and on the left of the corridor was a long window. Sam struggled to his feet and leant his forehead against the cool glass. Through it he could see constellations of stars scattered randomly across the night sky in patterns he had never seen before.
    Wherever he was, it was a long way from home.
    â€˜What is going on?’ he whispered, his voice hesitant like a tiny moth fluttering into the gloom. ‘Where am I?’
    A coldness entered the pit of his stomach, flipping and turning like a dark-green serpent. He suddenly began to feel very scared indeed. ‘Enough,’ he whispered. ‘I want to go home.’
    Shivering, he turned his face away from the window. As he did so, something moved in the shadows further up the train. Sam jumped and his heart began pounding rapidly.
    â€˜Who’s there?’ he called out nervously, his voice wavering in the silence.
    There was a pause, and then the very faint sound of laughter from the shadows. It was cruel, cold laughter: the sound of someone enjoying his fear.
    â€˜Look, I know you’re there,’ Sam called hesitantly. ‘Ijust need some help, that’s all. I’m lost and I need to get home.’
    There was no reply. Sam began to walk slowly up the corridor towards the shadows from where the laughter had come.
    â€˜Anyone?’ he called. ‘I just want to know where I am, that’s all.’
    Every dark and dusty corner seemed to watch him now. He walked past the sliding metal doors of unlit compartments. They were all open, but his eyes focused on the third one along. It was from here that he thought he had heard the laughter.
    Sam sensed eyes watching