66 The Quick Way Down

66 The Quick Way Down Peanut took the pencil out of her pocket and drew a can of spray paint as carefully as she could, trying to remember what the one in her (now confiscated) bandolier had looked like. When she finished, she picked it up. Mr M gasped. 'Is that... is that... Pencil Number One?' 'It is,' said Peanut, before picking up her drawing and testing the spraying mechanism. She aimed the nozzle at the wall. It worked perfectly. She smiled. 'OK. I think we've got a chance...' she said excitedly.

Then she drew a big, dotted-line oval that stretched from high up on the wall right down to the floor. When she had finished, she told everyone to stand back. She steeled herself for a moment, and then kicked the middle of the circle as hard as she could. To everyone's surprise, the whole thing popped out and tumbled into the night, as if the dotted lines she'd drawn were perforations. There was now a massive hole in the wall. The purple, star-filled sky looked huge as the wind rushed noisily into the room. The sudden sound triggered a commotion outside their cell: metallic voices talking very fast. Then they heard the sound of a key in the lock.

'Quick!' shouted Peanut. 'Everyone stand in single file behind me and grab the person in front.' Mr M scooped up Doodle and they all did as they were told. The cell door started to open. 'Hold tight!' Peanut stood looking out of the hole into the void, her toes over the edge of the precipice and the wind blowing through her topknot. She held the can of spray paint in front of her, pointed it just ahead of her feet, and pushed the button. A wide blast of paint came flying out of the nozzle, creating a length of runway suspended in the air in front of them. Peanut smiled. Then she aimed the can slightly further ahead and started to shape the runway so that it began to slope downwards like a slide. She edged the whole group out of the hole and along the first section of spray paint. When they reached the beginning of the incline, she held her breath and tipped her body forwards. WHOOSH! They all started to zoom down the chute, standing upright like a conga line of Silver Surfers. As they whizzed along, Peanut kept her finger on the button, spraying a pathway a couple of metres ahead of them. It twisted and turned like a magical ribbon in the sky. After thirty seconds or so, Peanut began to get the hang of it. In a moment of science-based rationale that even Death

Breath Dawkins would have been proud of, she decided that flying in circles would be the best way of modulating their speed and maintaining a certain amount of control. So she started to circle the Spire as if it were a giant helter-skelter. 'THIS IS LIKE THE BEST ROLLER COASTER EVER!' whooped Little-Bit. Rockwell and Mr M, on the other hand, looked decidedly ill. Are we nearly there yet?' asked Rockwell gingerly. 'We're about a quarter of the way down,' replied Peanut, marvelling at the magnificent view. It was something to behold. Even though it was night- time, she could see the clearly defined districts radiating out from the Spire, rotating below them as they circled the tower: the long, straight bridge of Die Brücke, the patchwork farmland of Vincent Fields, the ponds of the Light District, the skyscrapers of Superhero Heights, the highways of the Strip and the black mountains of the Ink District. When the North Draw came into view, she aimed the spray paint slightly to the right and straightened their descent, aiming for the wide-open snowy expanses. As they flew over the north side of the Rainbow Lake, Peanut felt a sudden wave of relief. She shouted over her shoulder, 'I think we're going to make it. I think we're going to be OK!' Unfortunately, she had spoken too soon.