Greta leaned over and spoke into Nicola's ear. 'I've always found you pretty annoying, Nicola.'
'What?' Nicola wasn't sure if she'd heard right.
'You know, the notice said to tell people how you really feel.'
Nicola couldn't respond because suddenly the wind grew so strong it was difficult to breathe. The basket jerked back and forth, swooped up in an arc, plummeted down and then soared back up again. Without thinking, Nicola reached for the hands of Sean and Greta. Both of them grabbed at her hands and held on tight. She looked up briefly and saw that all the Space Brigade were holding hands, their foreheads pressed against their knees, a huddled, terrified circle on the floor of the basket. Nicola pressed her face back down against her knees as well.
The howling of the wind sounded horrible. A whooooohooooo-ooooo sound like a ghost screaming.
Or was it Shimlara screaming?
Or was it herself screaming?
Or was it all of them screaming?
And then the balloon turned into a merry-go-round on fast-forward. Round and round and round it went, faster and faster and faster.
Nicola opened her eyes and saw the side of a mountain looming impossibly high above them like the side of a ship.
She heard Sean say, 'Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no.'
Sean's and Greta's hands were torn from her grasp.
The basket flipped upside down, tipping out the Space Brigade like marbles from a jar and sending them plunging thousands of feet to the mountain below.
29
Once again, Nicola's arms and legs flailed as she plummeted through the air, only this time she wasn't going to land in an icy river. This time she was going to land face-first on that icy, snow-covered mountain rushing up to meet her. This time there was no way she could survive (and by the way, how dare Greta say she was annoying? Now she would never have the chance to answer her back!). This time her nose was probably going to be smashed to smithereens, which would presumably be EXTREMELY painful. This time -
KERPOW!
Before any part of Nicola actually hit the ground, something exploded all around her. Something huge and rubbery and damp-smelling.
She held her breath, waiting for the terrible pain.
Which part of her was hurt or broken?
No part, as far as she could tell . . .
She was fine. She was alive!
I just survived a fall from a hot-air balloon.
Nicola took a shaky breath.
I JUST SURVIVED A FALL FROM A HOT-AIR BALLOON! It was unbelievable.
Her whole face had been scrunched up tight in preparation for hitting the ground. Slowly, carefully, she unscrunched it and opened her eyes.
Her bubble-jacket had been transformed into a gigantic round rubber ball from which only her head protruded like a tortoise. The ball was rolling backwards and forwards on the spot. She tried to move her arms and legs and found that she was trapped within the ball, exactly as the notice had said she would be. Well, she couldn't complain. The bubble-jacket had done its job and saved her life.
She looked up and saw she'd landed underneath some sort of rocky ledge that protected her from the hurricane. She could hear the wind still howling and the rain pounding. She wondered where the others had landed. Were they all safe? Had all their bubble-jackets worked? She hoped Shimlara had put hers on properly. Sometimes she could be a bit slap-dash with that sort of thing.
Her nose was itchy and because her arms were trapped she couldn't scratch it. She tried to drop her face forward to rub it on the edge of the ball, but she couldn't bend her neck far enough.
Well, it was only an itchy nose. She could cope with an itchy nose.
Oh, but this was unbearable.