The Ten Tests

The Ten Tests is the sixth chapter in the Wombles Four.

At Buckingham Palace the Queen was still locked in the cupboard. “Is one’s servant here to let one out?” she asked. Her butler was just outside the cupboard. “No!” he replied. “One jolly well is there!” replied the Queen. “But not to let you out!” added the Butler. He walked out of the palace and got squashed by a giant womblet, which suddenly fell out of the sky.

Wombat burst into the burrow confused. It appeared to be made of glass. There facing him looking angry was You’re In Trouble Uncle Bulgaria. “Someone has broken my painting and it must have been you because the hole is the shape of a wombat!” he said.

Cathy walked into the driver’s room in the rocket. Steed was driving it. “Where are we going?” she asked. “Now that you mention it I haven’t the faintest idea! Let’s go back, after all you are the queen!”  “Uh yes ok then.” Replied Cathy, and went back into the other room. She blinked at Thomas and Lucy. They were acting like normal babies. “Oh no” she said. “The drug that gives them the intelligence of a fully-trained spy is wearing off, and I dropped it when we hid behind the flower, so Mrs Peel’s probably taken it!”

Mrs Peel had taken it, along with the purple serum. She had got the giant womble off of her now, and left Rhonda to be suffocated and die, while she went back to the secret Head Quarters of SCAR. Yuma Von Vomble came in. “Have you killed Mother yet?” asked Mrs Peel. “Uh no” replied Yuma Von Vomble. “He got avay and I don’t know vhich vay he vent so I came here to get a tracking device.”  Mrs Peel looked at him angrily. “He got avay I mean away?”  “Ja” “Ugh! The tracking devices are in that room.”  Yuma followed her finger. Inside he saw a big sign that said, “You Failed!”  Then lots of guns and swords came out of the walls. “Oh no!  I must get out of here, but there is no vay out!”

Mrs Peel’s voice boomed through speakers “This organisation does not tolerate failure!”. “But Mrs Peel I can get Mother! I vill get him!” begged Yuma. “OK  I vill get you one more chance! If you fail again you vill die!”  Yuma came out the Room of Death and hugged Mrs Peel. “Thank you! I vill get him!”. With that he raced off after Mother.

As Yuma left. Mother landed his helicopter just outside SCAR HQ. He put on a bowler hat and carried an umbrella. Mother knocked on the door. Mrs Peel answered. “How did you find me here?” she asked. “Tracking device.” Replied Mother. “I have planted a time delayed poison capsule on Yuma. As for you”. He continued but Mrs Peel interrupted. “As for you, YOU are doomed!”. She hit him on head with the bowler hat.

Mother woke up on a conveyor belt in a flashing room. Mrs Peel’s voice boomed out through a giant speaker. “You have 10 seconds to escape the ropes. After 10 seconds the guns mounted above your head will kill you!” Mother used AEIOU to escape the ropes. He leapt off the conveyor belt with a second to spare. The guns started firing. Fortunately his brandy diet had prepared him for this sort of situation.

There was only one way out of the room. Mother lay on the conveyor belt when the guns finally ran out of bullets. He grabbed the ropes before it took him through the wall. Now it started to get hot. Very hot. Mrs Peel’s voice rang out again. “You have survived the first test. Now for the second. You are in an oven with reinforced steel walls. Either escape or cook. You have 1 minute to live!”

Mother thought quickly. All ovens need a flue to regulate the heat.  He looked up a saw a vent. Mother painfully leapt onto the machinery in the middle and hooked the rope through the vent. He climbed for dear life and just about scraped through the vent to a large silver tunnel.

“Third test! You are in the air vent. Shortly it will fill with deadly gas. You have 1 minute!” said Mrs Peel with glee. Mother didn’t think long he just crawled as fast as possible. There was a breeze of fresh air coming one way but instinct told him to go the other direction. He was right to go left. At the end of the air vent was a hatch to get out. The hatch had a combination to unlock it. Mother looked closely and saw that the numbers 1 to 26 were on the dial. He also noticed that when he had gone left there was arrow to indicate right towards the fresh air. It was wrong to go right!

''The alphabet, backwards! '' Mother thought quickly as he only had 10 seconds to live. AEIOU! He dialled 26, 22, 18, 12, 6. There was a small but dreadful pause then a click. Mother flung open the door and launched himself into the opening.

Down he went on a helter skelter. To his horror there was a host of poisonous creatures released behind him. He wriggled to dodge scorpions, tarantulas, giant centipedes, snakes and lizards. As he headed full-pelt to the bottom all the creatures he dodged were piled up and very angry! Here goes nothing!  Mother leapt over them all and landed in a crumpled heap in front of Mrs Peel. “Well done! You passed test number four!”  She hit him and everything went black.

Mother woke up in dark room with a big white ladder. “Welcome back Mother!” boomed Mrs Peel. “Test five will begin immediately!”  A laser beam sprang across the room searing the base of the ladder. Mother looked to see where it came from and saw a metal ray gun rising on a track up the wall. At that moment the floor started to open. He just managed to get on the ladder and climbed as fast as he could. The ladder seemed to go on for over a mile.

All the while the laser was increased in pace destroying the rungs already climbed. Down below the floor had gone with a deep fire pit in its place. The going was hard at the top but a ledge was close by. Another shock. The ladder was too short to reach the ledge. The laser was fast approaching the top rung. Mother desperately jumped up and grabbed the ledge. The ladder was gone now but the laser continued to chase. It singed his shoes as he scrambled up on the wooden ledge.

Mother realised that the ledge itself would be incinerated. He looked around and there was a hook above him. He grabbed it. The hook was on a zip wire. As he raced along out of control Mrs Peel spoke again. “Number six passed but will you last? Number seven then off to heaven!”

A steel wall came into view in front of Mother, who was travelling at around 40 mile per hour on the zip wire. There was only thing to do. He flung out his feet, bent his knees and relaxed knowing that he would inevitably die. Suddenly he stopped. Remarkably there was not much damage. Relaxing had saved him from broken bones.

“Number seven! You are doing well Mother! But try number eight! By the way there are ten tests. If you pass them all you can go free, until I hunt you down!”

“I suppose you expect me to die!” replied Mother. “No actually I expected you tomorrow but you are here now! And we are all happy about that!”. Mother would have been happier if he didn’t have to survive deadly tests but he thought it would be good for his waistline.

“Number eight is here! No need to wait my dear!” said Mrs Peel laughing. The hook was now plunging down to the furnace below! Without thinking Mother grabbed the laser. He wrenched off the track, pointed the beam downwards and threw it with all his might. The laser fell into the furnace then there was an almighty explosion. Everything went black again.

“Wake up Mother dear!” shouted Mrs Peel in his ear. He woke up feeling very hot. “You are wearing a womble costume kindly supplied by Steed. He also supplied me with a Venussian womble eating lily.” She continued. “But that was killed! By you!” spluttered Mother. “No it was a cunning trick!” she replied. Mother was shoved through a doorway. The door slammed behind him and the lock clunked on. Now he was in a big greenhouse. There was indeed a Venussian womble eating lily there.

“Easy!” shouted Mother and tried to take off the womble costume. He couldn’t. It was glued on! Mother ran at the glass wall and smashed it. He was protected by the big padded costume. It one movement he grabbed a slice of sharp greenhouse wall, hurled it at the plant and cut off it’s head!

“Number nine was fine! Number ten will get you!” shouted Mrs Peel sounding annoyed. Mother walked through the broken wall into another room. Rapidly he ran out of it. The ceiling slammed down to the ground in seconds. Now the door to the greenhouse had been forced open through the shock. He went back out.

“You have a one minute start Mother! Now run!” shouted Mrs Peel. She was armed with a rifle, crossbow, pistol and a machete. Mother did run very fast, straight out of the door into the countryside. Steed, I must find Steed!  He thought.

After he left. Yuma came back in. “What now?” asked Yuma. “We follow him Yuma, follow him to Steed!” replied Mrs Peel.

The rocket landed. Mother rushed to it. “Er…what are you doing here?” said Steed, after coming out of the rocket. “Need help!” gasped Mother. “From me?” replied Steed, rather surprised. “Anyone really” said Mother. “Ok, what’s wrong?”  “I just had to survive rather a lot of tests. Well only ten actually but it felt like a million.”  “I suppose it was Mrs Peel who captured you then.”  “That’s right, how do you know?”  “Just a guess. Anyway, you’re fine now, so could you help us?”  “Depends”  “On what?” “On what you need help with.” “Well Thomas and Lucy are acting normal.”  Mother blinked. “Who are Thomas and Lucy and why wouldn’t they be acting normal?”  “Oh yes, you never met them, did you?”  “No?”

Steed went back in the rocket and came out again with Thomas and Lucy. “Oh yes I forgot you stole my wife, they’ve jogged my memory just by being here.” Said Mother, rather annoyed. “Speaking of which, where is she?” “Well in there of course” replied Steed, and pointed at the rocket. Mother went in. Steed followed him with Thomas and Lucy. Cathy blinked. “What is he doing here?” she asked. “He said he needed help but actually he’s fine now” replied Steed. “Oh” replied Cathy. “Why is he still here then?”  “He just wanted to see you. But he was just about to leave.”  Mother sighed and left. As he was leaving, he said, “And by the way, I am still in danger, everyone is.” Steed blinked. “Well Mrs Peel’s on the loose!” explained Mother. “Oh yes I forgot” replied Steed.