BLOCKED WATERSLIDE
10:00
The girl with the bangles ripped the inflatable doughnut out of Hayley’s hands.
‘Oi!’ Hayley cried.
‘You can’t take that on the waterslide,’ the girl snapped. ‘Didn’t you see the sign?’
She jabbed a sparkly fingernail at a list of rules bolted to the wall next to the roaring tunnel. Warning—only one rider at a time. Wait for the green light. Ride feet first. No jewellery. No inflatable toys. Blah, blah, blah.
Hayley had seen the sign—but not until she was already at the top of the tower, having carried the doughnut up twelve flights of stairs. If she went all the way back down to give it to Dad, she would lose her place in the queue and have to wait for another ten minutes, trembling in her wet swimmers as she slowly made her way up the stairs again. And anyway, she had also seen two other kids burst out the bottom of the slide clinging to a giant inflatable flip-flop. The lifeguard hadn’t yelled at them or anything.
09:03
The light turned green, then red again. The waterslide hissed behind Hayley, with no-one on it.
‘You’re holding up the line,’ complained a curly-haired boy behind them.
‘She’s holding up the line,’ the girl said, pointing at Hayley with one hand and holding the doughnut out of reach with the other. ‘She’s not following the rules.’
The girl was a year or two older than Hayley, wearing several rings, two silver bangles, and a necklace. The sign also said No jewellery, so this girl wasn’t following the rules either. Hayley was about to say so when she was distracted by a fizzy popping noise from downstairs.
No-one else seemed to hear the sound. Hayley wiggled her fingers in her ears, trying to get the water out of them. ‘Give it back,’ she said.
The girl smirked. ‘Fine. Go get it.’ Then she threw the inflatable doughnut into the tunnel.
‘Hey!’ Hayley dived headfirst onto the waterslide after the doughnut, which was already disappearing around a corner ahead.
08:10
Chlorinated water shot up her nose. Now she knew why the sign had said Ride feet first. Sneezing and choking, she grabbed the walls and pulled herself downwards, accelerating into the darkness.
The waterslide was an enclosed, hard, plastic tube which coiled around the tower like a strangler vine, descending to a plunge pool at ground level. The seams in the tube scraped Hayley’s hips. She would have been much more comfortable in her doughnut, which had a thin, rubber base stretched across the hole. She glimpsed it up ahead before it slipped out of sight around another corner.
Hayley gritted her teeth. If the doughnut landed in the plunge pool empty, everyone would turn to look, just in time to see her tumble out and crash-land on it. And she was sure the lifeguards would have a go at her, even though they’d ignored the inflatable flip-flop—
Hayley gasped. There was a hole in the floor up ahead! But when she slid closer, she saw that it was just a transparent plastic panel. As she swished over it, she glimpsed the ground, forty metres below, distorted by the surging water. Everyone on the ground below seemed to be looking up at her.
Hayley thought she saw something stuck to the slide further down. Two curved pieces of metal, as though the tube had sprouted horns . . . but she was going too fast to identify the objects. She swept over the transparent panel and back into darkness.
06:35
Hayley swished around another bend and down a curved slope, then saw her doughnut. She was catching up to it. Yes!
In fact, it had stopped completely, blocking the tunnel. It must have gotten caught on something. Hayley slid over another transparent floor panel, hands outstretched—
Bang! It didn’t feel like hitting an inflatable doughnut. It felt like crashing into the bars of a prison cell. Hayley squealed as the impact bruised her forearm and shoulder.
Confused and alarmed, Hayley scrambled into a sitting position in the rising water. The doughnut hadn’t budged, stuck firmly against the sides of the tunnel. She gave the rubber a kick. Her heel clanged against a metal object, hidden behind the doughnut.
Something was blocking the tunnel. Her doughnut had hit it and gotten stuck. Now the water had nowhere to go. It was already up to Hayley’s belly button, and rising fast. If she didn’t act soon, she’d drown in the dark.
Panicked now, Hayley tried to climb back up the tunnel. But the plastic floor was designed to be slippery, and her palms kept sliding out from under her. It would be impossible to climb all the way back to the top.
One of the transparent floor panels was only a metre away. She clawed her way up to it. Maybe she could signal for help.
Hayley pounded on the dirty glass. ‘Hey! Help! The tunnel is blocked!’
She couldn’t tell if anyone had noticed her. The rising water covered the panel, distorting everything.
06:05
A flash of movement made Hayley glance up. The girl with the jewellery was sliding down the slope, eyes widening as she saw Hayley.
Hayley barely had time to brace herself before the girl crashed into her. She lost her grip on the floor, and then they both slammed into the doughnut, bruising Hayley’s other shoulder.
‘What are you doing?’ the girl screeched.
‘Something’s blocking the tunnel!’ Hayley yelled.
‘It’s your stupid doughnut!’
‘No, something else!’ The churning water was up to Hayley’s chest now. It was like sitting in a cold bath.
The girl kicked the doughnut like Hayley had, and yelled in pain. Hayley crawled back up to the transparent panel and kept hitting it. ‘Help! Someone help us!’
Crack. Hayley peered down at the panel in horror. Through the swirling water she could see a fracture. If she hit the glass again, it might shatter, sending her tumbling to the concrete thirty metres below.
‘What do we do?’ the girl shrieked.
05:35
Before Hayley could reply, the curly-haired boy swept into view above, limbs flailing.
‘Heads up!’ Hayley yelled.
She didn’t wait to see if the girl had heard. She curled into a ball, shielding her head with her arms, bracing for impact.
The boy slammed into her, then they both crashed into the girl, then all three of them hit the doughnut with a thud that smashed the air out of Hayley’s lungs. She managed to keep her mouth above the water. The boy wasn’t so lucky—he was pushed under.
Wheezing, Hayley grabbed him by the hair and dragged him out of the water. He came up spluttering. ‘What the heck?’
‘The tunnel is blocked—not just by the doughnut.’ Hayley talked fast. ‘There’s something behind it, made of metal. We can’t move it.’
There was a tremendous groan from above their heads. They all looked up.
‘What was that?’ the girl whispered.
‘The bolts that hold the tube together.’ Hayley was figuring it out as she spoke. ‘They’re not designed to take the weight of this much water.’
‘Oh, jeez!’ the boy whimpered. ‘We’re going to fall!’
Hayley looked around frantically. They didn’t have long. If the bolts broke, they would all plummet to their deaths. If the bolts didn’t break, they would drown. And any second now, another kid would come hurtling down, making things even worse.
05:16
Her eyes settled on the girl’s bangles. ‘Give me one of those.’
The girl shrank back. ‘What?! You’re robbing me now? Is this all some kind of trick?’
There was no time to explain. Hayley grabbed the girl’s hand and dragged her over to the cracked, transparent panel in the floor. The water was up to her chin now.
‘What are you doing?’ the girl shouted, right in Hayley’s ear.
Ignoring her, Hayley held the girl’s arm down against the panel, under the water. She hammered on the bangle with her fist. Bang, bang, bang. The panel wasn’t glass—it was some kind of plastic. Earlier she had been afraid that it would break. Now she was afraid that it wouldn’t.
The plastic was hard, but the bangle was harder. There was a crunching sound as the fracture widened, and then ruptured. Water whirl-pooled, draining out through the jagged hole.
‘Ohhhh.’ The girl understood now. ‘Clever.’
Hayley looked around. The water level wasn’t rising anymore, but it wasn’t falling, either. And she didn’t want to risk punching another hole in the plastic. The whole panel could shatter, and then the next kid would—
05:05
‘Wheee—ow!’ Another boy hurtled down the slide, and then screamed as the jagged edge of the broken panel tore a hole in his board shorts and maybe his skin. He crashed into the other three kids.
There was another groan from the bolts. Hayley felt the vibrations through the floor.
‘What the—’ the new boy began.
Hayley ignored him. She grabbed the girl’s shoulder. ‘Can your nails rip through the doughnut?’
This time the girl didn’t question her. ‘I’ll try.’ She stabbed at the rubber base of the doughnut with her sparkly fingertips.
‘Try grabbing it and tearing, like this.’ Hayley demonstrated.
The girl copied, bunching up the stretchy material and pulling. There was a sound like a zipper, and a tear opened up. Water poured through the rip, giving them all some breathing room.
03:40
Hayley stuck her head through and finally saw what had blocked the doughnut. Her eyes widened. A pair of crossed swords were wedged through the tunnel like chopsticks through a dumpling. What the heck? Had someone stabbed the tube? How had they even gotten up here?
But as she’d hoped, the whole tunnel wasn’t blocked off. There was a gap under the swords, just large enough to squeeze through.
Hayley pulled her head back out. ‘Keep tearing,’ she said. ‘We can get through.’
Together, they peeled away the base, leaving only the inflatable ring. The swords were exposed through the hole.
‘What ...’ the girl began, staring at the crossed blades.
‘Doesn’t matter. Go! Don’t cut yourself.’
There was another groan, louder this time—and then a bang as the bolts finally snapped. The waterslide was breaking apart under their weight. A split opened up above their heads. Daylight poured in. Hayley reached up and pushed her palms against the plastic on either side of the split, trying to hold the tunnel together. She braced her feet against the floor, which was still in one piece ... for now.
‘We’re gonna die!’ one of the boys wailed.
Hayley’s muscles burned. She wouldn’t be able to keep the tunnel together for long. ‘Get moving!’
The two boys wriggled through the hole in the doughnut like worms disappearing into an apple. The girl looked back at Hayley. ‘What about you?’
‘I’ll be right behind you,’ Hayley grunted. ‘Go!’
02:35
The girl crawled away, leaving Hayley alone in the tunnel. Her arms trembled under the strain. If she let go, would this section of the tunnel fall thirty metres to the concrete below? Or would the floor stay intact long enough for her to squeeze past the swords and escape?
She stretched out with one leg and slammed her heel against the cracked transparent panel. If it shattered, more water would leak out, reducing the weight.
Bang, bang. It was hopeless. She couldn’t break the panel from this angle. And now her shoulders were seizing up. She couldn’t hold the roof together much longer.
With no better ideas, Hayley kept kicking weakly at the transparent panel—
01:04
Crash! The whole tube burst apart, and Hayley plummeted into the daylight, screaming. The stairs flitted past as she fell, along with the queue, and another sign about the rules. It was like her life flashing before her eyes, or at least the last ten minutes of it. She covered her head with her arms, knowing they wouldn’t protect her from the concrete.
She was going to die. But at least she’d saved those other kids. And she—
Wham! Hayley hit the ground ... and bounced.
She found herself falling again, but this time not so far, before she thudded against the dirt a metre or two away from the footpath. What had happened?
Dizzy and sore, she rolled her head to one side and saw what she’d bounced off. It was a pile of slide mats, topped with the giant, inflatable flip-flop. The girl with the long nails was holding one corner of the flip-flop, puffing. She must have started putting this pile together as soon as she emerged from the slide. She’d saved Hayley’s life.
The girl hurried over to her, still clutching the inflatable toy. ‘Hey! You OK?’
00:00
‘You’re not supposed to have those,’ Hayley croaked. ‘It’s against the rules.’