47 The Chase

47 The Chase Several of the people nearby stopped walking and turned to face the children. ' Er, Peanut...' said Rockwell quietly. 'What do we do now?' Without hesitating, Peanut reached inside her cardigan and pulled the two-inch paintbrush and the thinnest marker pen from the bandolier. The crowd, seeing the illegal art materials, stepped back slightly. Quick as a flash, Peanut drew eight small circles in two rows of four on the floor. She then painted a thick black bar, big enough for the three children to stand on, across the top of them and drew a vertical line with a T-bar coming up and out of one end of it. ' Rockwell, pick up Doodle. Everyone, jump on! Hold

tight!' yelled Peanut, before kicking off and zooming down the pavement. The makeshift scooter was surprisingly responsive, and Peanut was able to weave her way through the pedestrians with relative ease, despite a myriad of speech bubbles saying things like 'CAREFUL!' and 'WATCH OUT!' blocking her vision. She looked over her shoulder to see the police car full of bulldogs with its light flashing and the siren on. It was gaining on them. It's no use! They're going to catch us!' shouted Peanut. 'There's nothing else for it, we're going to have to split up!' 'What do you mean, "split up"?' replied Rockwell. I mean we're going to have to go in different directions. Peanut, in case you'd forgotten, we're all standing on the same scooter. Remember? The one you just painted!'

'THIS IS THE POLICE! PULL OVER!' The bulldogs were now within a few metres of them. 'Little-Bit, can you reach the yellow pencil in my bandolier?' 'I-I think so. ' She let go of Peanut's waist with one hand and managed to reach inside her cardigan with the other. 'Got it!' Right. Now, I want you to carefully turn around and sit down. Do it slowly. You can lean back on to my legs for stability.' 'OK. I'll try.' She turned around and sat down. Great!' Peanut swerved to avoid a woman walking several miniature llamas on different-coloured leads. 'Careful!' shouted Rockwell. Remember some of us are holding dogs!' Right. Now, LB, I want you to take the pencil, turn it around and rub out a section of the footplate. A straight line right across the middle of it. But... won't that break it?' 'That's what I'm hoping!' She darted in between a tiger in a pinstripe suit and a woman eating some candyfloss. ' Rockwell, you like skateboarding, right?' swell, yes. But 'IF YOU DO NOT STOP, WE WILL BE FORCED TO SHOOT!' The police car was driving on the pavement now about five metres behind them.

Do it, LB! Do it now!' The little girl flipped the pencil and rubbed in a straight line as hard as she could across the middle of the footplate. The scooter split in two. 'WHOOOOOOAAAAAAAAA!' Rockwell, with Doodle in his arms, suddenly veered sharply to the right and disappeared down an alleyway in between two doughnut shops. At the same time, Peanut and Little-Bit swerved left, straight into the road. The police bulldogs were, understandably, confused. Two of them turned their heads to the left, following Peanut, and the other two followed Rockwell as he went right. Unfortunately for them, no one was looking straight ahead. They were heading, rather rapidly, towards a three-metre-tall model of a chocolate doughnut, covered with sprinkles and painted with the words 'STOP HERE FOR THE BEST CHOCOLATE RING ON THE STRIP'. The crash was spectacular!

Meanwhile, Peanut tried desperately to avoid the cars in the road. Luckily, there was a traffic jam, but that didn't stop the many spiky BEEP! speech bubbles. After a minute or so she managed to steer back on to the pavement and bring the scooter to a stop next to a bright red kiosk in the shape of an apple. The sign above said: 'CUTE FRUIT'. Ten seconds later, Rockwell, holding Doodle in his arms, skated out from between a sushi restaurant and a launderette a few doors down the road. His head and shoulders were covered in something brown and gooey. Doodle was miraculously untouched, 'You took your time!' Peanut laughed. 'What happened?' 'We had a small incident with a vat of chilli,' replied Rockwell. ' No biggie. I'm fine.' He wiped his brow. 'Anyone else feeling a bit... hot?' Little-Bit, still holding the pencil, sketched a glass of water and handed it to him, before giving Little Tail back to Peanut. ' Thanks,' he said, drinking deeply. 'So, where are we now?'