The Midnight Gang

The doors opened.

PING!

The doors closed.

With his finger trembling, Tom pushed “B” for basement, and the lift trundled down to the darkest depths of the hospital.

With a jolt, the lift stopped.

PING!

The doors opened, and Tom stepped out into the darkness.

The boy was now alone in the basement of LORD FUNT HOSPITAL. His bare feet felt the cold, wet concrete beneath him. Above him on the ceiling was a strip of fluorescent lights, though most had blown, meaning it was all but pitch black down here.

PING!

Tom jumped. It was just the lift doors closing after him.

The sound of water dripping from pipes echoed along the corridor ahead of him.

Slowly Tom made his way along it. When he came to the end, there were four corridors, two to the left and two to the right. It was a maze down here. The boy looked to see if he could make out any wheelchair tracks on the floor. It was hard to see anything with so little light, so Tom bent down to study the floor. At that moment, a creature brushed past his face.

“Aaarrrggghhh!” His scream echoed down the corridor. At first Tom thought it might have been a rat, but he could just see the creature hopping off. It looked more like a bird, but if it was a bird what was it doing all the way down here?

In the dirt on the floor, Tom could see some tyre marks heading down one of the corridors on the right, so he followed them.

After a few paces, he could feel the stale air in the basement becoming warmer. Just up ahead was a giant furnace where the hospital’s waste was being burned. Not far from that, Tom saw a huge basket on wheels. He looked inside. It was full of laundry. Above it was a small hatch. Just then more bed sheets tumbled out of the hatch and fell into the laundry basket. The boy realised that this must be the end of a chute leading down from the wards above.

Every few paces there were doors, and more corridors. Tom followed the tyre tracks as they snaked their way through the basement.

The tracks led on to a corridor that was pitch black.

All the lights in this section of the basement must be broken, thought Tom.

The boy hesitated before going forward. His worst fear was the dark. Still, it seemed foolish to turn back now. He might be about to find the other children and uncover their secret midnight adventure. Slowly Tom tiptoed forward. Soon it was so dark that he could not see his own hand in front of his face. Now he had to grope along the damp walls to find his way. Just then …

KLANG!

… a deafening noise echoed down the basement corridors. It sounded like a heavy metal door being shut. Tom wondered who else might be down here with him. The porter?

Frozen in fear, the boy stopped dead. He listened. And listened. And listened. But now all he could hear was silence. A deep dread all but swallowed him up. Although he stood still, he felt as if he was running or falling or drowning.

Tom realised that coming down to the basement alone was a terrible mistake. He had to get out of there. Right now. He began to retrace his steps, but in a panic he lost his way. Soon he was running barefoot down the corridors, the pink, frilly nightdress flapping as he went.

Out of breath, and still feeling woozy from that cricket ball hitting his head, Tom stopped for a moment. Then he felt something grab his shoulder. He turned round. It was a hand.

“Arrrggghhh!” he screamed.

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“Wot are you doin’ down ’ere?” came an angry voice. It was George. Alongside him were Amber and Robin. Tom turned round and Amber and George immediately collapsed in hysterics.

“Ha ha ha!”

In no time, both were helpless with laughter.

“What’s so dreadfully amusing?” asked Robin. “Pray tell!”

“Yes, what is so hilarious?” demanded Tom. He had the distinct feeling they were laughing at him.

“It’s your pink, frilly nightdress! Ha ha ha!” laughed Amber.

“It’s not mine!” protested Tom.

“Oh, I see,” said Robin. “Well, I don’t see,” he added, patting the bandages over his eyes, “but you know what I mean.”

“Robin, if you could see ’im, you would ’ave a good laugh,” added George.

“So how frilly exactly are we talking here?” asked Robin.

“Well …” began Amber. “There are layers of frills like on a wedding cake.”

Robin must have created the image in his head because he giggled to himself at the thought. “Oh dear me! Ha ha!”

“Shut up! The three of you!” shouted Tom angrily.

“Yes, you boys, no more giggling!” said Amber, even though she was the one who had been giggling the loudest.

“Look, Tom,” began George, “we asked you somefink. Wot are you doin’ down ’ere?”

“I was following you,” replied Tom. “What are you doing down here?”

“We’re not saying!” replied Amber. “Now go back to bed, annoying little twit!”

“No. I won’t!” replied Tom.

“Get back to bed!” added George.

“NO!” replied Tom defiantly. “I won’t!”

“I’d slap you if I could see where you are,” fumed Robin. “Count yourself very lucky, Ducky!”

“I’ll snitch on you all unless you let me come too!” said Tom.

The other three were stunned into silence.

One thing that was looked down on at Tom’s boarding school was snitching. Despite the brutal atmosphere at St Willet’s, snitching on other boys to the teachers was forbidden, even if they had …