Zebra Rampage Read online

  Contents

  DEDICATION

  WHY READERS LOVE

  FLIGHT OVER AFRICA SKY SAFARI

  1 FLIGHT OVER AFRICA

  2 TARZAN

  3 WHAT HARRY SAW

  4 WHAT JORDAN SAW

  5 HEEEEEEELP!

  6 EL TORO!

  7 CAPTAIN AMAZING

  8 KISS OF LIFE

  9 BRAND-NEW DAD

  10 NO CHOICE

  11 ROCKS WITH EARS

  12 POOR HARRY!

  13 CRANKY HIPPO

  14 GOING FOR GOLD

  15 HEY!

  16 CALLING MRS Z

  17 MAKE-BELIEVE

  18 INCOMING ZEBRA

  19 POOR JORDAN!

  20 POLICE!

  21 $500 REWARD

  22 SECRET STUFF

  COPYRIGHT

  WHY READERS LOVE

  ‘What could possibly be better than reading Mission Fox?’

  Derrick (age 11)

  ‘Mission Fox [books are] exciting and thrilling. I do not want to put them down. I am in the middle of Snake Escape and can’t wait to see what happens in the end.’

  Nathan (age 9)

  ‘I LOVE YOUR BOOKS SO MUCH! I READ HORSE HIJACK 3 TIMES IN 1 DAY =)’

  Sarah (age 8)

  ‘These guys are way cool, and I read a chapter every night with Mum.’

  Jasper (age 7)

  ‘Mission Fox books are fun and exciting, you want to read them again and again.’

  Rebecca (age 10)

  ‘I hope the adventures of Mission Fox keep coming.’

  Lachlin (age 9)

  ‘Sometimes I wish I was Jordan ‘cause he can talk to animals.’

  Hailey (age 11)

  puffin.com.au/missionfox

  FOR MADISON, WHO THOUGHT OF THE TITLE

  There was no warning. One moment Jordan and Harry Fox were gliding slowly through the treetops, next moment their sky-chair stopped dead.

  ‘Shishkebab!’ gasped Jordan, gripping the safety bar with both hands. ‘Is this supposed to happen?’

  His twin brother, Harry, looked in both directions. All the other sky-chairs had stopped, too. The overhead cable was no longer moving.

  ‘There must be a power failure,’ he said.

  Jordan tried not to look down. They were stuck – dangling six metres off the ground in the middle of Africa!

  Well, it wasn’t really Africa.

  ‘I wish we’d never entered that stupid competition,’ Jordan muttered.

  The twins had found the competition on the children’s page of last Saturday’s newspaper. It was a 25-question quiz all about the birds, reptiles and animals of Africa. Jordan and Harry got every answer right. (They’d had a bit of help from BRAIN, a special app on the FoxPhone that stood for Bird, Reptile and Animal Information Network.)

  First prize was two free tickets on the brand new ‘Flight Over Africa Sky Safari’ at Nullambine Zoo.

  But there was a difference between going for a ride on a sky-chair and just hanging, stalled, in the air from a cable, like pegged-out washing.

  ‘Look on the bright side,’ said Harry. ‘At least we can get some good photos.’

  Their sky-chair had stopped above a wide, bushy enclosure. There were zebras, wildebeests and a few antelopes scattered among the trees. One of the zebras was directly below the twins’ dangling feet.

  ‘Smile, Mr Zebra!’ Harry said, pointing his camera.

  ‘I think it’s Mrs Zebra,’ said Jordan.

  A baby zebra lay in the big one’s shadow. The mother was licking it.

  ‘Cool!’ said Harry. He zoomed his camera for a closer shot. ‘Get out of the way, Mrs Z, so your baby isn’t in the shade.’

  But the mother zebra stayed where she was. She kept licking her baby. Its fur looked dark and wet.

  ‘It’s just been born,’ whispered Jordan.

  ‘Awesome!’ Harry said. He took another photo.

  Jordan watched the baby zebra for a few more seconds. Its eyes were closed. It wasn’t moving a muscle.

  ‘Something’s wrong,’ he said.

  Harry unclipped the safety bar and swung it aside.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Jordan asked, leaning back so he wouldn’t fall out.

  ‘Going to help,’ said Harry.

  The sky-chair wobbled as he stood up.

  ‘You’re crazy!’ Jordan cried. ‘It’s way too far to jump! You’ll break your neck!’

  ‘I’m not going to jump,’ Harry said. ‘I’m going to swing down like Tarzan.’

  There was a big flowering gumtree nearly touching the cable where the twins’ sky-chair had stopped. The closest branch was a metre away. Harry leaned across and grabbed hold with both hands.

  ‘Yeeeehaaa!’ he cried, and kicked his feet free of the wobbling chair.

  The branch wasn’t strong enough to support Harry’s weight. It bent like a fishing rod. Harry went crashing down through the tree in a shower of leaves, flowers, broken twigs and gum-nuts.

  It wasn’t exactly like Tarzan, but it worked. Harry landed on both feet about three metres from the zebras.

  The mother looked round in surprise. She bared her teeth and made a loud barking noise. It was zebra-talk for Back off!

  ‘Take it easy, Mrs Z,’ Harry said, letting go of the branch.

  The branch whipped back up and nearly knocked Jordan out of the sky-chair.

  ‘Hey!’ cried Jordan.

  Harry kept one eye on the mother zebra. ‘Your turn, Agent J,’ he called softly.

  Agent J was Jordan’s official Mission Fox Animal Rescue code name. But this wasn’t an official rescue. They weren’t even wearing their MF uniforms.

  ‘My turn for what?’ Jordan asked, playing dumb.

  ‘To swing down like I did.’

  ‘No way!’ said Jordan. He was scared of heights. He wasn’t very good at sporty stuff, like Tarzan swings, either.

  ‘Sorry,’ he added.

  Harry sighed. He was good at sporty stuff, but Jordan was better with animals. They seemed to trust him.

  When Harry tried to get close to the baby zebra, its mother rushed at him and tried to bite his arm. Her teeth were huge! Harry had to jump behind the tree trunk.

  ‘I really need your help, Jordan!’ he called.

  Jordan clung to the sides of the sky-chair. His knuckles were white. ‘I think we’re too late,’ he said sadly. ‘The baby looks dead.’

  Harry peered round the tree trunk. ‘We should check,’ he said. ‘Just in case.’

  Then he asked an important question: ‘Remember the Mission Fox Official Oath, Agent J?’

  Jordan did remember it – especially the bit about baby animals.

  Gulp!

  Rising shakily to his feet, he reached slowly across the gap between the sky-chair and the tree.

  Harry glanced up and saw his twin brother lean over and grab the branch.

  Then he saw him freeze.

  Jordan was stuck. His hands gripped the branch, but his feet were hooked through the armrest of the sky-chair. The rest of him stretched across the open space in between, like a human hammock.

  ‘Let go with your feet!’ Harry said.

  But Jordan wasn’t thinking about his feet. He wasn’t thinking about his hands, either. There was something in the tree in front of him – something amazing …

  A tiny monkey sat in a fork of the tree. It was hardly bigger than a Barbie Doll and had a huge mop of frizzy white hair.

  It looked like a creature from a Dr Seuss book!

  But Jordan knew exactly what it was. When he wasn’t at school or rescuing animals, he spent a lot of time looking up things on BRAIN.

  The Dr Seuss creature was a cotton top tamarin. They are very rare. You don’t find them in Australia
, or in Africa. They come from Colombia, in South America.

  So what was it doing here?

  Jordan didn’t get time to figure it out. In the distance there was a ding-dong-ding-dong sound, like a warning alarm, and suddenly the sky-chair began moving again.

  With Jordan’s feet still on it!

  The sky-chair pulled Jordan one way, the branch pulled him the other way.

  Stre-e-e-e-e-e-tch!

  Then – TWANG! – Jordan’s feet slipped free. Luckily his hands were still gripping the branch.

  Going down! he thought.

  WHOOOOOOOSH!

  Jordan’s eyes were closed. He felt a stinging rush of leaves, gum-nuts, flowers and scratchy branches whip past him. It was like taking a roller-coaster ride through the jungle.

  Then – CRUNCH! – it was all over.

  Jordan opened his eyes. He was lying flat on the ground. Next to him lay the baby zebra. Jordan was close enough to see a flicker of movement under the damp fur on its neck. It was a tiny heartbeat.

  The baby zebra was alive! But only just. There was no rise and fall under the fur on its ribcage. It wasn’t breathing.

  But its mother was.

  SNORT!

  Uh-oh. Too scared to move a muscle, Jordan swivelled his eyes sideways.

  Two big black hooves were planted in the dust right next to him. They were connected to two black-and-white stripy legs. And they were connected to Mrs Z.

  Her head was just above Jordan, and she didn’t look friendly. She snorted again. Her breath was foul!

  ‘Easy, girl!’ Jordan said, crawling slowly away from her. Mrs Z didn’t come after him. Instead, she turned the other way.

  Phew! thought Jordan, scrambling up.

  ‘LOOK OUT!’ yelled Harry.

  A huge black hoof whooshed past Jordan’s ear, missing him by millimetres.

  ‘Shishkebab!’ he cried. Mrs Z had tried to kick his head off! Before she could kick again, Harry grabbed Jordan’s arm and dragged him behind the tree.

  ‘Thanks,’ Jordan gasped.

  ‘She’s pretty mad,’ said Harry.

  Jordan nodded. ‘It’s because of the baby.’

  He knew all about mother animals from BRAIN. If they thought you were going to harm their babies, look out!

  But Jordan and Harry weren’t harming the baby zebra, they were trying to help it!

  ‘It’s alive,’ Jordan whispered. ‘I saw its heartbeat. But I don’t think it’s breathing.’

  He and Harry peered around the tree trunk at the little stripy foal. It didn’t look alive. Mrs Z stood over it, watching the twins with an evil glint in her eye.

  ‘We’ve got to do something,’ said Harry.

  Both of them were thinking about the Mission Fox Official Oath.

  ‘There must be a vet at the zoo,’ whispered Jordan.

  Harry nodded. ‘Use the FoxPhone.’

  ‘I didn’t bring it,’ said Jordan. ‘The battery was flat, so I put it on charge before we left home.’

  They looked up at the Flight Over Africa ride. All the chairs were empty.

  But someone might hear if they yelled loud enough.

  ‘HEEEEEELP!’

  It startled Mrs Z. She snorted and came trotting towards the tree with her head thrust forward. Her lips were drawn back, showing her big square teeth. Jordan and Harry ducked out of sight.

  Yelling for help probably wasn’t a good idea, they decided.

  ‘Maybe one of us should go for help,’ whispered Harry.

  Jordan peered around the enclosure. All the other zebras were watching them. They looked just as unfriendly as Mrs Z. ‘There isn’t time,’ he whispered. ‘The baby will die if it doesn’t start breathing.’

  Harry nodded. ‘Time for Plan B,’ he said.

  ‘What’s Plan B?’ asked Jordan.

  Harry pulled off his T-shirt.

  Harry’s T-shirt was the same red as a bull fighter’s cape. He stepped out from behind the tree and jiggled it at Mrs Z.

  ‘El toro!’ he said.

  The twins didn’t know Spanish, but they had heard a bull fighter say ‘El toro!’ to a cartoon bull on Saturday Cartoons. It made the cartoon bull mad.

  It made Mrs Z mad, too.

  She barked again, really loudly. It was zebra talk for I’m coming to get you!

  She charged.

  When Harry was little, he invented a superhero called Captain Amazing. It was just a game, but when he pretended he was Captain Amazing, five-year-old Harry Fox wasn’t scared of anything. He did some pretty amazing things. Some of them were pretty dangerous, too.

  It was amazing he was still alive!

  Sometimes Harry still pretended he was Captain Amazing. He no longer thought he was an actual superhero, but he still took amazing risks.

  Like waving his T-shirt at a killer zebra to make it charge.

  Jordan didn’t know if anyone in the history of the world had ever been killed by a zebra. Harry would be famous. But Jordan didn’t want his twin brother to become famous – well, not famous and dead!

  ‘RUN!’ he yelled.

  But Harry was pretending to be Captain Amazing, and Captain Amazing never ran away! He waited, jiggling his T-shirt, until Mrs Z was nearly on top of him. At the very last moment, he flicked his wrists and hooked the T-shirt neatly over the charging zebra’s head.

  Then he twirled sideways, out of Mrs Z’s way.

  ‘Olé!’ cried Harry (or Captain Amazing) – it was another of the Spanish words that bull fighters said on Saturday Cartoons.

  The T-shirt covered Mrs Z’s head like a ski-mask with no eye-holes. She couldn’t see! She shot past Harry and kept going.

  Harry turned to his brother. ‘Check on the baby, Agent J,’ he said. ‘I’ll try to keep Mrs Z busy.’

  Then he went charging off after the blind-folded zebra.

  Jordan had no time to lose. Mrs Z might come back at any moment.

  He knelt over the little zebra, checking its heartbeat. Yaay! It was still alive. But it still wasn’t breathing.

  How long could a newborn baby last without breathing? Jordan wondered.

  Then he thought of another question – a more important one: How did you start a newborn baby breathing?

  He and Harry were animal rescuers, not vets.

  Suddenly three words popped into Jordan’s head: Kiss of life. That was when you blew air into someone’s mouth if they stopped breathing. Jordan had seen lifeguards doing it to people who had nearly drowned on the TV show Beach Rescue.

  Could you do it to an animal?

  Jordan looked down at the baby zebra. There was slimy stuff all over its head. It looked like Mrs Z’s spit.

  ‘No way!’ he muttered.

  Then he heard another voice. This one was inside his head. It was Harry asking him a question: Remember the Mission Fox Official Oath, Agent J?

  Shishkebab! Jordan thought.

  He carefully lifted the baby zebra’s head off the ground, bent down and blew a big puff of air into its mouth.

  Nothing happened. Well something did happen – Jordan got slime all over his teeth and lips. He nearly spewed.

  But still the little zebra didn’t start breathing.

  Jordan gave it another puff. This time he noticed something. When he blew air in, bubbles came out of the zebra’s nose. Eeew! It was disgusting, but it showed him what was going wrong.

  The air wasn’t getting all the way down to the baby zebra’s lungs, where it needed to go.

  Jordan clamped one hand over the newborn foal’s nostrils, and tried again. This time, the little zebra’s stripy ribcage filled with air.

  Yes! Jordan thought, lifting his head clear and wiping his lips on his sleeve.

  But still the baby zebra didn’t start breathing.

  One more try, thought Jordan.

  Again he sealed the foal’s nostrils and puffed air into its lungs.

  Its ribcage rose, then fell.

  Holding his own breath, Jordan raised his head on
ce more and checked to see if the baby zebra had started breathing on its own.

  There was a very soft noise. It sounded like a tiny breath. Slowly, the foal’s ribcage rose and fell. Then it rose and fell again.

  The baby zebra was breathing!

  A big shiver passed through its body. It coughed a couple of times, then opened its eyes.

  The first thing it saw was Jordan’s smiling face.

  ‘Hey, Little Z!’ Jordan said. ‘Welcome to the world!’

  As soon as it was breathing properly, Little Z wanted to get up. But its long skinny legs got a bit tangled. Jordan helped it sort them out. Then he lifted the tiny foal gently to its feet and stood back to watch.

  ‘Look at you!’ he said. ‘Walking already!’

  Well, it was standing, not walking. But that was a good start.

  Soon it was walking. Or trying to. Wobbling and shaking, Little Z took two wonky steps in Jordan’s direction … and fell in a heap. Jordan stayed where he was. It had to learn to get up on its own.

  ‘You can do it,’ he said softly, watching Little Z struggle back to its feet.

  This time the baby took six wobbly steps … and reached him.

  ‘Well done, big guy!’ Jordan said, scratching Little Z between its ears.

  He felt as proud as a brand-new dad.

  Little Z wanted someone else. It nuzzled up to Jordan, sucking at the tips of his fingers.

  ‘Hey, I’m not your mum!’ he laughed. He turned to look for Mrs Z, but saw his brother instead.

  Harry came striding through the trees with a big grin on his face. He didn’t have his T-shirt. ‘I thought the little guy wasn’t breathing,’ he said.

  ‘He wasn’t,’ Jordan said. He described how he had given the kiss of life to the baby zebra.