麻豆社

By Benjamin French

"Will I feel better in the morning, Mum?"

"Yes, of course Ben, this medicine will do the trick."

Ben's Mum raised the spoon to his mouth and poured in the medicine. It tasted of strawberries and felt silky and cool on his throat.

"Now snuggle down, nighttime is when your body fights the germs. Sweet dreams."

"Wake up man!"

"Huh?"

"I said wake up, we have incoming!"

Corpuscle Clot rubbed his eyes and accidentally headbutted General Red, who glared down at him.

Clot had been caught in a nightmare. Now he was alert to the real thing. He pulled on his uniform, picked up his bacteria blaster and, at the last minute, pushed some germinators into his pockets.

Clot was a proud - if clumsy - member of the General's Antibody Army. It was their job to fight off terrible tummy bugs and diseases.

Clot tasted rotten eggs in the air as he rushed from the safety of his blood cell. Across the battle front he saw a gigantic bug.

Gelatinous pods were falling from it. Suddenly one of the pods hatched, spewing smaller bugs. They had sharp pincers and were firing poisonous liquid from long, jagged tails.

"The haemogoblins are spreading. Into the trenches men," shouted the General. Following the order, Clot dived between two ribs, the bones providing good cover.

"Corpuscle Rhesus, line up your men on the left side ready for artery fire. My group will take the mother haemogoblin from inside," said General Red.

Clot's platoon rushed towards the huge bug. A soldier fired his bacteria blaster. Inside, the men faced several passageways that smelled putrid and were sticky underfoot. Clot felt a pulsing. "This way!" he directed the team.

They moved forward through a writhing mass of jelly-like substance that made a squishing noise with each step. Suddenly the whole chamber shook. The mother haemogoblin was fighting back. Their standard weapons would be no match.

"This calls for the mega-medicine blaster," the General called. "Luckily, I loaded it with the new ammunition supply that dropped in earlier."

The officer fired. An explosion of lethal, pink juice slammed into the mother haemogoblin's brain. "Once more should do it!" cried General Red. But popping sounds signified more haemogoblins were being generated.

"Hurry, they're coming!" warned Clot. Suddenly a wave of bugs crawled over the General, stifling movement and muffling his mouth. The weapon fell and the vital medicine began to drip out.

Clot feared they would fail their mission when he suddenly remembered the germinators. He pulled two from his pocket, ripped off the pins and hurled them towards the haemogoblins. They shrivelled, and turned to dust.

Clot grabbed the mega-medicine blaster with its failing supply, stood back and pulled the trigger, splattering the mother haemogoblin. It convulsed then lay, lifeless.

The rest of the Antibody Army cheered. Clot had saved the day.

In the morning, Ben woke up and shouted downstairs: ''I feel better Mum, in fact I feel ready to take on an army!"