the lights and could see nothing beyond. Ryan sat up and held his hands aloft.
‘Okay, you got me,’ he giggled. ‘I’m slow and unfit. What are you anyway, the fat police?’
‘Ryan!’ said Daisy through gritted teeth.
‘Sorry,’ he replied, climbing to his feet. ‘Oh… head rush,’ he added, and promptly passed out.
Ryan awoke to find that it was still relatively dark and that his hands were bound behind him. Still, at least he was seated, which suited him quite nicely. There were voices jabbering a different language very close by and he blinked as a torch was waved in his direction.
‘Hey…’ he groaned, trying to turn away from it. There was something cold and hard behind him. Judging by the low thrum and vibrations coursing through his body it was the vehicle they had just encountered.
He turned his head to the right and was shocked to find Daisy Rose’s face barely an inch from his. She was wearing a quite bizarre expression; somewhere between fear and amusement. As it turned out, it was both of them at once.
She gave him a broad, almost idiotic smile, which he returned with interest.
‘Hi Ryan,’ she mouthed carefully, her eyes flickering briefly in the direction of the lights nearby.
He gave her a wink in response.
Then, with a tilt of the head, Daisy mouthed the following: ‘They’re hamsters.’
It took a few moments for the words to register in Ryan’s mind. It felt like his head was full of treacle, but in fairness to him they were hardly the next words he had been expecting from her lips. Slowly a frown began to draw across his brow.
‘They’re hamsters?’ he repeated very quietly.
Daisy nodded, her eyes as wide as dinner plates.
Ryan cast the briefest of glances to the side, but all he saw was a hazy mixture of light and dark shades.
‘Hamsters?’ he said again.
‘Yes Ryan, hamsters.’
‘Who are?’
‘The nasties.’
‘What?’
Suddenly their faces were awash with light and they both squinted to see past it. Then an oddly high-pitched voice with an even stranger accent spoke.
‘Ah. It seems ze uzzer vun is avake.’
It really was a quite curious voice.
Several other lights swung their way and the one in front of them lowered slightly. From the gloom beyond appeared a moist, pink nose, followed by a set of whiskers, a furry, brown muzzle and a pair of beady, black eyes. It truly was the largest hamster Ryan had ever seen.
‘So, vot do our little spies have to say for zemselves?’ it asked, the voice making a lot more sense now it was tied to the face.
‘You have the crappiest accent ever,’ smirked Ryan. ‘Who taught you English?’
The hamster squinted at him through the shiny black orbs that were its eyes. Then, all of a sudden, it administered a stinging backhand to the side of Ryan’s face.
‘Insolent vermin. You vood do vell to votch your tongue.’
Ryan glared back at him.
‘You’re a good one to talk about vermin, rat face.’
The second slap was open-palmed and a lot harder. Four sharp claws scraped across his left cheek, breaking the skin.
‘Kviet! Disgusting creature! Comrades, gag him. He vill not speak again unless ve ask him to.’
‘You did ask me to, you son of a…’ protested Ryan, but he was cut short as a filthy rag was thrust into his mouth and bound behind his head.
Glowering wildly at his captors, there was nothing he could do but sit and watch as they turned their attentions to Daisy.
‘So, little vun, are you going to be more cooperative?’ asked the hamster.
‘Of course,’ she beamed sweetly, though his treatment of Ryan had shocked her. ‘What do you want to know?’
Ryan wasn’t sure how much Daisy knew about interrogation, and while he didn’t exactly relish the prospect of being tortured for information he did feel that she was giving in a tad easily.
‘Firstly, your names,’ demanded the hamster.
‘I’m Daisy Rose and this is Ryan Butler. What’s yours?’
The hamster looked slightly taken aback.
‘Vy, I am Captain Nibbles. I command ze most fearsome group of soldiers in ze Third Reich.’
Ryan made a stifled guffaw behind his gag and Captain Nibbles gave him a wrathful look – as far as that was possible for a hamster.
‘You are lucky your friend is being so cooperative,’ he sneered. ‘Uzzervise…’
Ryan simply returned his look by going cross-eyed.
‘So, Daisy Rose, vy are you and your insolent friend sneaking around in my vood at night? Who sent you? Vot is your purpose here?’
‘You’re very cute,’ replied Daisy, smiling. ‘If I wasn’t tied up, I’d give you a big cuddle.’
This time it wasn’t only Ryan who was laughing to himself. Nibbles threw a dangerous look over his shoulder at his comrades.
‘I AM NOT CUTE!’ he bellowed, his high-pitched voice going nearly ultrasonic. ‘I am a fearsome varrior. My enemies tremble at ze mere mention of my name. NOW, ANSWER ZE KVESTIONS!’
His whiskers were quivering with rage.
‘Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you,’ said Daisy. ‘The truth is that no one sent us, and we have no mission as such. We’re just here, enjoying a moonlit stroll in these beautiful woods. Are they really yours?’
She continued to beam an adoring smile at the hamster. Nibbles, however, was not impressed.
‘Your story is an unlikely vun,’ he snarled, ignoring the question. ‘You do know zat zere is a vor on?’
‘A war? Oh yes, but we’re really not interested in that sort of thing. It’s all very unnecessary and nobody wins in the end.’
Captain Nibbles’ nose twitched agitatedly. He was clearly unhappy with the amount of information he was being given.
‘Little girl, let me make myself very clear. If you continue to be uncooperative I vill have no choice but to take you back to ze Fürrer, who most likely vill show you a whole new meaning to the vurd ‘pain’. Now, I shall ask you again; vy are you here? Are my foes so desperate zat zey are resorting to sending children to spy on me now?’
‘Oh no, we’re not spies. We didn’t even know there was anyone else in the forest.’
‘Don’t try my patience, girl! No vun valks zese voods unless zey are vun of us or vun of zem,’ he spat on the ground next to Ryan’s feet. ‘And you don’t look like vun of us.’
He eyed them both with barely concealed loathing.
‘I’m telling you the truth,’ said Daisy, her smile finally starting to fade.
‘Enough!’ cried Nibbles. ‘Sandy, Scampi, stick zem in ze vagon. Perhaps ve’ll let ze Fürrer have some fun vith zem.’
Two other hamsters, much larger than Nibbles himself, stepped into the light and roughly grabbed hold of the two captives. Daisy did not put up a fight and Ryan was in such a fit of giggles that he was in no state to resist. They were bundled into the back of the vehicle, which instead of having seats in it was lined with wood shavings and chewed-up pieces of cardboard. The doors were slammed shut behind them, and a moment later the truck lurched into motion.
‘Ryan! Ryan, be serious for a moment. I think we’re in trouble.’
It had been several minutes and Ryan was still struggling to get a grip on himself. He wriggled into an upright position and took a few deep breaths through his nose. The rag in his mouth was soaking with his saliva and there were streaks of dribble down his chin. He did his best to wipe them off on his chest and then sat back and looked across at Daisy.
It was dark in the back of the wagon. The only source of light was that of the moon filtering through several rows of slots in one side of the vehicle. It cast Daisy’s pale features into stark contrast, while Ryan sat in shadow. Surprisingly, there were no other occupants in the rear of the vehicle, though, in truth, there was barely enough space for the two of them as it was, and their legs we
re a tangled mess in the middle of the floor.
‘Hnou hokkae Izz?’ he mumbled through the gag.
‘I beg your pardon?’ said Daisy.
‘Hokkae?’ he repeated.
‘Ryan, I can't hear you through that thing. Do you think you can get it off?’
Ryan thought about giving her a sarcastic look, but knew she probably wouldn’t have noticed in the dim light. At that moment his stomach let out a deep, growling rumble.
Daisy giggled.
‘How can you be hungry?’
Ryan gave a pig-like snort and shrugged. Then all of a sudden, an idea struck him. In his fits of mirth about the situation they now found themselves in, he had all but forgotten why they were there in the first place and, more importantly, how they had got there. He looked at Daisy and mumbled something incoherent, before settling back and closing his eyes.
‘Ryan, what…?’ started Daisy, but her voice trailed away as his eyes snapped open and gave her a look that demanded silence. Slowly they began to close again.
Think about the outcome, not the method, he told himself.
He concentrated on the gaping void in his stomach; on the nagging hunger that had begun to gnaw at his insides. He imagined the feeling he got when he was stuffing down a huge pizza, or one of his mum’s all-too-rare roast dinners. He thought of the sensation of being almost comatose from food intake. He imagined not being able to eat another thing…
… and all of a sudden he was eating; chewing away on something that seemed to change its flavour every few moments – from his favourite cereal, to toast with honey, to chilli con carne, to steak, to the pizza he had thought about and then into a whole medley of desserts. It was as if a flavour bomb had detonated in his mouth, as