Toad Heaven - Morris Gleitzman [42]
“Well,” said Limpy. “It's really just the fact that you've been leading my whole family into mortal danger.”
“Danger!” said Mum. “What danger?”
“Rubbish!” thundered Malcolm.“My easy-purchase plan offers safety, not danger.”
Limpy looked up at the feral pig.
“Excuse me, Mr. Pig,” he said. “See that lump on Malcolm's back? Would you mind stabbing it with your tusk?”
“My pleasure,” said the pig.
“Hey, wait a minute,” protested Malcolm. But before he could move, the pig prodded his back lump with the tip of a tusk.
“Ow!” yelled Malcolm.
The pig withdrew the tusk.
Malcolm stood frozen with shock and pain while a small square of black plastic popped out of his back and landed on the ground.
The animals and cane toads all crowded round and stared at it.
“What's that?” said Dad.
“Did Malcolm swallow a brake pad?” asked Mum.
Limpy explained about the tracking device, Goliath assisting with some of the more technical terms, like “brother-in-law” and “second honeymoon.”
“This is ridiculous,” snapped Malcolm. “Anyone who thinks that thing can tell humans where we are is an idiot.”
“Look,” said Goliath, pointing across the scrub. “I think it's telling those humans where we are.”
Limpy peered in the direction of Goliath's arm.
And saw a four-wheel drive speeding toward them along a narrow dirt road.
The animals saw it too, and reared up in panic.
“Let's get out of here,” said a camel.
“Dead right,” said a mouse.
“I'm off to that other national park,” said the pig. “Which way's east?”
“This way,” said a fox. “Let's go.”
Limpy stood dazed as the ground shook and the animals thundered away.
He waited for the four-wheel drive to veer off the road and start rounding the animals up.
But it didn't.
Even when Goliath jumped on the tracking device and cracked it in half, the four-wheel drive continued to speed directly toward Limpy and the other stunned and exhausted cane toads.
“No!” screamed Malcolm at the four-wheel drive.“Stay away from me! I haven't got that thing in me anymore. Look.”
He pushed Limpy out of the way and turned and showed the hole in his back to the rapidly approaching vehicle.
The four-wheel drive didn't even slow down.
“Please,” sobbed Malcolm. “Have mercy. I'll never promote a real estate subdivision with unreasonably high interest rates ever again.”
The other cane toads were panicking too, and hopping in all directions.
Limpy scrambled to his feet and tried to help Charm and Goliath drag Mum and Dad out of the path of the four-wheel drive. But they got tangled up with Malcolm, who was trying to hide behind them, and they all fell in a heap.
Stack me, thought Limpy. We're not going to make it.
The wheels were heading straight for them.
“Mummy,” whimpered Malcolm.
Limpy reached out to hold as many of his family as he could, and wished for their sakes that the world was a fairer place, and waited for the end.
It didn't come.
The four-wheel drive zoomed straight past them.
Limpy looked up through the dust, his heart beating a wobbly rhythm of relief in his ears.
He was feeling a bit confused.
He watched the four-wheel drive screech to a stop next to a low mound of dry earth. Two human blokes with khaki shorts and shirts and no beards got out, flung open the back doors of the vehicle, and dragged out what looked to Limpy like some sort of big squirter attached to a big plastic drum of something.
They started spraying liquid onto the mound.
“What are they doing?” said Goliath in Limpy's ear.
“I think it's an ants’ nest,” said Limpy.
He felt Charm move closer to him.
“Do they realize they've parked on top of another one?” she whispered.
Limpy swung his gaze back to the four-wheel drive.
She was right. He could see another, smaller mound half covered with dry grass under the vehicle. Red ants were starting to pour out of it and swarm all over the four-wheel drive.
“Stack me,” said Goliath. “It's more of those rude mongrels.”
“Fire ants,” said Charm. “I overheard some sheep talking about them back at the railway station. They've only been in these parts a short while,