43 An Awakening

43 An Awakening So a trebuchet is a giant catapult?' said Little-Bit, looking at the lengthy pink-and-blue contraption that was being towed into position twenty metres behind the siege tower. Essentially, yes,' replied Rockwell, revelling in his position as the resident expert on proceedings. 'As you can see, they're comprised of a long arm with a cradle to hold the projectile on one end, and then a big box full of something very heavy at the other. The heavy end is then winched up really high, and when you drop it back down, it whips the arm around to throw the projectile. They're pretty awesome, to be honest, but they take a while to set up because they're so big.' 'Well, I wish they'd get a move on,' said Peanut, looking at

her watch. ' Mr White and Alan could be back any second now.' The children watched as a team of hamsters wearing bright blue helmets ran into a giant wheel at the base of the trebuchet and started running furiously, causing it to spin. This set the whole mechanism in motion so that the large box at one end of the giant arm began to slowly rise up, and the cradle at the other started to descend. As the cradle approached the ground, several Resistance agents began to roll an extremely dense charcoal missile towards the cradle. That's when it happened. An ear-splitting roar filled the skies all around the

Rainbow Lake. It was so loud that the buds popped out of Rockwell's ears, and the hamsters operating the trebuchet instantly froze. Peanut felt a familiar but unwelcome fluttering sensation in the pit of her stomach as the truck they were sitting in began to vibrate. Everybody looked towards the source of the noise. Long plumes of black smoke had started to emerge from the five chimneys on top of the Big X, and, to the horror of the children, the eyes of the RAZERs in the cockpit were glowing red. Peanut swallowed hard. 'They're back.'