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Stuart just ran to his daughter.

‘Jenny, go and get peddling on the cycle just as fast as you can, we’ll need more speed to quickly gain some height and get the hell out of here’ he insisted.

‘But the mooring ropes?’ she queried.

‘
Sod the mooring ropes! You leave them to me and Joan, we need you to provide the power for this thing to climb higher and then quickly turn around’ he insisted.

‘Right, Dad’ Jenny just nodded as she ran to the cycles and began peddling just as fast as she could.

‘There’s a long handled hook, Stuart
, we use it for grabbing hold of the mooring ropes and getting hold of them and away from tangling up in trees or power cables and stuff’ explained Jack as he pointed to it.

‘OK’ nodded Stuart ‘but where do the ropes fix?’ he queried.

‘Just tie them up anywhere you can there’s no specific place or anything’ explained Jack
as Stuart began doing as he suggested.

Suddenly though, both
their attention was diverted elsewhere.

‘
ONE OF THE CREATURES, IT’S CLIMBING UP
HERE
!’ shouted Joan.

She hesitated for a second and then shouted back again.

‘IT’S ALL RIGHT, LEAVE IT TO ME!’

‘
NO! I’LL DEAL WITH THE CREATURE. YOU PULL UP THE REST OF THE MOORING ROPES, JOAN’ Stuart insisted shouting as he ran towards her as he then promptly gave her the long handled hook.

‘BUT I CAN DEAL
WITH THIS THING’ queried Joan.

‘I’M NOT ARGUING!’ Stuart
insisted and she then just nodded her head.

‘But what am I supposed to do with this thing
anyway?’ puzzled Joan as she looked at the long handled hook he had just handed her.

‘You pull up the rest of the mooring ropes with it’ Stuart quickly explained.

‘Oh, right’ nodded Joan before she
then ran off.

‘JACK, YOU GET US TURNED AROUND AND GET US HIGHER IF YOU CAN!’ shouted Stuart as he
then ran for a knife.

‘SHIT!’
now uttered Stuart as he looked down to see dozens of creatures now all hopping up and trying to grab hold of the loose mooring ropes.

‘God, that’s a nightmarish sight’ he muttered to himself.

Then he concentrated on the quite evil looking creature that was swinging around and gradually climbing up the mooring rope just below him instead.

‘Christ! I never expected to be doing anything like this when I got up this morning’ he cursed away to himself.

‘I’M GOING TO HAVE TO CLIMB OUT A BIT
IN ORDER TO CUT THIS ROPE, SO TRY KEEPING HER STEADY, JACK’ Stuart shouted.

‘NO, DAD,
NO
!’ shouted Jenny in alarm.

As he then clambered outside, Stuart began to feel quite faint. The sheer height terrified him and combined with the movement of the airship he was barely even holding on now.

‘Christ! I take it back
even sailing around the Needles isn’t
this
bad’ he mumbled away to himself.

‘CUT THE
ROPE AND LET THAT THING FALL, STUART IT’S AFFECTING MY DAMN STEERING!’ shouted Jack in anguish.

‘I’M BLOODY TRYING AREN’T I
? IT WOULD HELP IF YOUR BLOODY KNIFE WASN’T AS BLUNT AS ARSEHOLES!’ Stuart shouted back in frustration as the knife’s blade just proved too blunt.

Meanwhile
, the creature was now making progress and gradually getting closer and closer to him.

The wind was blowing Stuart
all around and he felt totally sick and afraid of falling, but he knew he had to cut the rope now in order to save everyone on board!

‘A SUPER SHARP KNIFE ON AN AIRSHIP IS NOT SUCH A GOOD IDEA!’ Jack shouted back.

‘
WELL ONE WOULD BE BLOODY HANDY TODAY I CAN TELL YOU, THIS KNIFE IS JUST CRAP! IT’S JUST TOO BLOODY BLUNT!’ Stuart shouted back angrily.

‘
THEN JUST THROW IT AT IT!’ shouted Jack.

‘THROW WHAT?’ Stuart shouted back.

‘THE DAMN KNIFE OF COU
RSE, THROW THE DAMN KNIFE AT IT!’ shouted Jack.

Taking Jac
k’s advice, Stuart brought his arm back and with one almighty throw landed the knife right on top of the creature’s head!

It just bounced off
though, not even leaving a mark.

‘UH, OH!’ uttered Stuart in alarm.

‘NOW WHAT’S UP?’ shouted Jack
‘DID YOU THROW THE KNIFE AT IT?’

‘YES I DID
’ shouted Stuart.

‘THEN THE CREATURE’S
GONE THEN?’ asked Jack as he continued to attempt to steer the airship around.

‘NO
!’ replied Stuart.

‘WHAT DO MEAN NO?’ queried Jack.

‘NOW IT JUST LOOKS RATHER PISSED OFF! UH OH, AND NOW HE’S CLIMBING UP TOWARDS ME AND HE’S MOVING UP EVEN QUICKER NOW!’ shouted Stuart in panic.

‘OH
, DAD!’ cried Jenny as she ran her hands through her hair in anguish as she continued to just peddle away.

‘
JUST KICK HIM IN THE KISSER!’ shouted Jack.

‘NO, YOU COME HERE AND KICK HIM IN THE
BLOODY KISSER!’ replied Stuart angrily.

‘FOR CHRIST’S
SAKE, YOU’RE FROM ENGLAND, MAN, YOU MUST HAVE PLAYED SOCCER SURELY?’ shouted Jack.

‘NO,
FOR YOUR INFORMATION I PLAYED BLOODY RUGBY AND CRICKET!’ shouted Stuart right back.

‘Trust me to pick the only Englishman
who never played soccer’ cursed Jack under his breath.

‘LOOK!
JUST ACT LIKE YOU PLAYED THE WRONG DAMN SPORT THEN!’ cursed Jack as he continued struggling to steer the airship around.

Just the
n, Stuart noticed the creature was almost upon him.

‘OH SHIT! IT’S
HERE
!’ he gulped.

‘WELL KICK IT
THEN! FOR CHRIST SAKE MAN,
KICK IT
!’ screamed Jack in panic, as now even he could see the ugly creature’s head appearing as he gazed back down over his shoulder.

Stuart just did as he suggested and kicked the creature right in the face!

It temporarily lost its grip with one claw before
it began climbing up towards him once again.

‘IT’S DIDN’T BLOODY WORK!’ screamed Stuart
.

‘WELL KICK HIM AGAIN
THEN!’ shouted Jack.

‘I BLOODY
DID
!’ Stuart shouted back as he now began to panic even more.

‘WELL KICK HIM HARDER
THIS TIME!’ suggested Jack.

‘Bloody harder, I’ll kick
you bloody harder in a minute’ cursed Stuart under his breath as he climbed further out and held on with just one hand in order to catch the creature earlier.

‘THUMP! THUD!
THUMP
!’ it went as Stuart kicked the ugly looking creature in the face as it was quickly left gripping on with just one claw once again.

Then Stuart drew upon
all his courage and strength as he gave it one almighty kick right in the thorax area with
both
his feet this time!

The creature
immediately slipped and fell to the ground!

Unfortunately though, S
tuart himself also began to lose his grip on the rope, then suddenly he fell too!

Jack
with his legs being held by both Jenny and Joan grabbed hold of Stuart now and safely pulled him inside the airship’s cockpit area again.

‘Thank Christ!’
uttered Stuart wiping the sweat from his brow as he sat on the cabin floor as all three of them just hugged him in sheer relief.

‘You saved m
y life, Jack’ Stuart uttered.

‘No, I reckon you saved
ours
’ smiled Jack as he raced back towards the control room again.

‘DON
’T EVER ASK ME TO DO THAT AGAIN’ Stuart shouted after him as Jenny now just hugged him and wouldn’t let go.

‘I HOPE I WON’T
HAVE TO’ laughed Jack as he began trying to steer the airship upwards again.

‘Get back to the cycle now, Jenny’ he
r dad told her ‘I’m fine now’ he assured her.

He then left her to return to the cycles when he suddenly heard her scream out again!

‘JENNY?’ he shouted
.

‘DAD,
THERE’S ONE OF THE CREATURES NOW PRISING OPEN A WINDOW!’ she shouted as she just stood there trembling in terror.

Stuart raced around to
quickly shield Jenny from any danger as he pushed her quickly behind him.

He now watched in alarm as he saw
the creature already half way inside the airship’s cockpit.

Before he could think of anything though, Joan just raced around from behind him and smashed the creature
flat in the face with the butt of a fire extinguisher!

‘WE
!

‘
DON’T!’

‘WANT!’

‘YOU!’

‘UGLY!’

‘LOOKING!’

‘BRUTES!’

‘IN!’

‘
HERE
!’

She shouted
as she smashed the creature hard in face with every single word she uttered.

In the end
, the creature had had enough and it just let go and fell!

Stuart just stood back in amazement.

‘Blimey! R
emind me never to ever upset
you
’ he smiled as Joan now just collapsed into his arms.

They now just rushed to the window to watch the creature simply get up
again as if it had only fallen a few inches.

‘Jesus! How far do you reckon it fell? What, thirty
, forty feet?’ Stuart pondered.

‘No, more like sixty
I reckon’ commented Joan.

‘Seriously?’ queried Stuart.

‘Yes, easily sixty feet, if not
a bit more’ confirmed Jack now standing right behind them.

‘And it just got up and walked away
, completely unhurt?’ queried Stuart.

‘What the hell are these things?’ questioned Joan.

‘They look a bit like giant crickets or grasshoppers’ commented Jack.

Stuart now just slumped down onto the floor of the cabin
again as he now blew a huge sigh of relief.

‘But
wasn’t it always considered by us scientists that things like that couldn’t grow anywhere near that size on Earth?’ puzzled Stuart.

‘Well
having that I just smacked one in the face I would suggest we were all completely wrong with that theory’ smiled Joan.

Jack had returned
to the controls again now as they both went to join him there.

‘We’re back over th
e giant building again now’ he confirmed.

Stuart now turned his attention back to
Jenny. She was sitting down too and just looked very shocked.

‘Jenny, a
re you all right?’ her dad asked as he rushed to be by her side.

‘All those poor peopl
e, Dad, I just can’t get the sight of them out of my head. All that blood and the look of horror on their faces’ she cried as the tears just ran down her face.

‘There’s no chance of any more of those things getting on board is there?’ she then asked looking completely terrified.

‘
No, we’re safe now, Jenny’ he assured her as he held her in his arms.

‘Look,
let’s just get back on the cycles again, I’ll join you, Jenny’ he told her ‘my old clockwork engines must need charging back up to full power again by now’ he suggested.

‘No, let me’ smiled Joan
as she just touched his arm ‘if we wait for you to get up to speed it’ll be Christmas before we get home’ she joked.

Then Joan
whispered in Stuart’s ear.

‘Let me look after he
r’ and he just smiled and gratefully nodded his head.

‘I don’t know I’m not
that
unfit I’ll have you both know’ Stuart now stated indignantly.

‘Go on,
old man, you need your afternoon nap’ laughed Joan as Jenny managed to raise a smile.

Then though, she began to look down again.

‘But
all those people, Dad, we must be able to do something to save them?’

‘Best not to think about it
, Jenny’ he told her then he nodded to Joan to look after her before he returned to speak to Jack again.

‘Is Jenny
going to be all right?’ asked Jack.

‘Yes, I think so’
Stuart nodded ‘I think anyone would be shaken up after seeing what she’s just witnessed’ he added.

‘I was just lucky’ commented Jack ‘I was just too busy trying to turn this thing around to see too much’ he commented.

‘Believe you me, Jack, no one in his right mind would want to see what Jenn
y’s unfortunately just seen’ added Stuart.

‘Was it really that bad?’ asked Jack curiously.

‘Well if you call seeing men and women being killed and then being completely devoured
, then yes, it was’ nodded Stuart. ‘It was more than I could stomach, let alone a seventeen year old’ he admitted.

Then he noticed Jack looked very worried himself.

‘What’s up
, Jack, are you OK yourself?’ he asked.

‘I’m just hoping they can’t get on top of this
giant building we’re travelling over, they might be able to reach us from there and to be honest I’m struggling to get this thing to go any higher’ he admitted.

‘But there seem to be no windows or an
ything for them to climb up’ observed Stuart as he gazed down.