The Battle for Perfect Read online

  Things are quiet in the town that used to be PERFECT until Violet receives a strange note and she catches Tom sneaking about. When Violet and Boy follow Tom they uncover a lot more trouble brewing.

  Town is about to be taken over by a huge zombie army. Can Violet and Boy save themselves and their friends?

  It’s a matter of life or death!

  A highly charged finale to the series that began with A Place Called Perfect.

  “A creepy, magical tale of bravery and self-belief.” Sunday Express

  “Full of the adventure, mystery and sinister goings on…” Rachael, Waterstones bookseller

  “This is one of those books that you think about when you’re not reading it and can’t wait to find out what happens next.” Tom Fletcher

  “Brimming with humour, intrigue, danger and thrilling adventures…” Lancashire Evening Post

  “Helena Duggan builds an intriguing world and tells a gripping story…” The Scotsman

  “A quirky, intriguing novel…” Through the Looking Glass (blogger review)

  “A creepy adventure story full of twists and turns…” Scoop magazine

  For Robbie, my Boy

  CONTENTS

  THE STORY SO FAR

  CHAPTER 1.

  BOY’S BIRTHDAY

  CHAPTER 2.

  THE DARE

  CHAPTER 3.

  ABOUT TOM

  CHAPTER 4.

  PROMISES

  CHAPTER 5.

  MISSING SCIENTISTS

  CHAPTER 6.

  THE NOTE

  CHAPTER 7.

  BACK TO THE OUTSKIRTS

  CHAPTER 8.

  THE FOREST

  CHAPTER 9.

  NURSE POWICK

  CHAPTER 10.

  THE MAZE

  CHAPTER 11.

  SEEING THINGS

  CHAPTER 12.

  A ZOMBIE ARMY

  CHAPTER 13.

  THE NEXT GENERATION

  CHAPTER 14.

  DR A. ARCHER

  CHAPTER 15.

  ARNOLD

  CHAPTER 16.

  CHANGE OF PLAN

  CHAPTER 17.

  WARNING TOWN

  CHAPTER 18.

  THE AMBUSH

  CHAPTER 19.

  THE DEATHDEFIER

  CHAPTER 20.

  THE WATCHERS RETURN

  CHAPTER 21.

  FAMILY TIES

  CHAPTER 22.

  WHY BOY?

  CHAPTER 23.

  REVELATIONS

  CHAPTER 24.

  IRIS’S SECRET

  CHAPTER 25.

  A TOWN UNITED

  CHAPTER 26.

  OLD FRIENDS

  CHAPTER 27.

  THE MAKEOVER

  CHAPTER 28.

  DR JOSEPH BOHR

  CHAPTER 29.

  THE ULTIMATE REVENGE

  CHAPTER 30.

  THE SELFLESS SCIENTIST

  CHAPTER 31.

  DESPERATE FOR BOY

  CHAPTER 32.

  SECRET MEETINGS

  CHAPTER 33.

  TOM’S DESTINY

  CHAPTER 34.

  THE DIVIDED SOUL

  CHAPTER 35.

  POWICK’S POISON

  CHAPTER 36.

  THE SACRIFICE

  CHAPTER 37.

  BROTHERS

  CHAPTER 38.

  UNITEA

  A LETTER FROM THE AUTHOR

  Violet stared at the miniature eye plant blinking inside a small glass box. She shivered as the creature turned and looked straight at her, its translucent skin-like petals flapping slowly as its thin red stem pulsed with the blood that fed it.

  Eugene Brown, Violet’s dad, clad in his white lab coat, was busy scribbling some sort of complicated maths equations on a blackboard across the room to her left, a cloud of chalk dust surrounding him. Her best friend, Boy, was scratching his head, sitting at the large steel table in the middle of the room as he tried to tackle the homework Mrs Moody had set them. The summer holidays had only just finished and Boy was finding it hard to get back into the swing of school. His struggles hadn’t been helped by Mrs Moody’s workload.

  They were in the cellar of Archer and Brown, the town optician’s. It was a much nicer place now than when it had been owned by Boy’s evil uncles, Edward and George, and known as the Archer Brothers’ Spectacle Makers’ Emporium. The cellar used to be where the Watchers, Edward and George’s vicious army of thugs, had hung out and it had been a cold, unwelcoming room. Rough hammocks had hung from the bare stone ceiling on large metal hooks and old wooden crates were used as tables and storage around the space. It had smelled too, of large, sweaty, hairy men. Now, since Eugene had started using it as his new lab, coloured rugs dotted the flagstone floor, paintings hung from the walls and a large old fireplace, which had been uncovered behind some of the Watchers’ stinking mess, blazed heat from its hearth, warming the grey walls. And there were eye plants everywhere, encased in glass boxes on steel lab benches.

  It was because of the eye plants that Violet’s family had first come to the town formerly known as Perfect, when Edward and George had read about Eugene’s research in Eye Spy magazine and sought him out. First the Archer brothers had tried to use the plants to do terrible things, then William Archer had installed them as a security system around Town, but now Eugene had decided he wanted to use his eye plants the way he’d originally intended. He’d recently been given money from a university to do so, and was working diligently on developing the eye plants to help the blind see.

  Violet’s mam, Rose, had been a successful accountant before Perfect but after her imagination was stolen by the Archer Brothers she’d given all of that up. When Eugene got his funding she stepped in to run the optician’s shop above with Boy’s dad, William. Violet hadn’t seen her mother as happy in a long time.

  “I still think they’re creepy,” Violet whispered, looking through the glass box at a distorted Boy, who was busy biting the end of his pencil. She’d finished her homework ages ago and was getting bored as she waited for her friend to finish his.

  “They’re not creepy, Violet,” her dad corrected, looking round at her through a veil of chalk dust. “These little beauties are going to help so many people! Won’t that be amazing?”

  Violet knew he was right – the plants would help people. After all her dad was a great scientist, everyone told her that. But it didn’t mean the things weren’t disgusting. Even after everything, the sight of them still gave her shivers.

  “I know,” she said, looking across at Eugene, “but why can’t you experiment with something less disgusting, like hair transplants or ears or anything else?”

  “Oh yeah, that sounds lovely, Violet – imagine a field of ear plants!” Boy smirked, distracted.

  Boy was talking about the field on the far side of the river just over the footbridge. Eugene Brown needed space to sow and mature his eye plants and so, with agreement from the Town Committee, he’d begun growing them in the wasteland separating Town and the Ghost Estate.

  “Why are you two talking?” Rose Brown rounded the bottom of the spiral stone staircase reaching down to the cellar from the shop above, and marched into the room. “Aren’t you meant to be doing your homework and not disturbing your father, Violet?”

  “I’m finished!” she announced as her mam dropped a copy of the Town Tribune on the table where Boy was working.

  “That’s great, pet,” Rose said as she pulled Violet’s opened copybook over to her and peered down at the text. “Maybe you’ll get a smile from Mrs Moody this time!”

  Mrs Moody was their teacher and she never smiled.

  “That’d be a miracle, Mam,” Violet snorted, plonking down into a yellow armchair
beside the fire.

  Violet and Boy had been coming to Archer and Brown to do their homework ever since classes started back. The building was just at the bottom of the road from school, it was an easy place to get their work done quickly and meant Violet and Boy didn’t have to go home alone. Violet had never liked being on her own – she’d always imagine all sorts of wild scenarios for every sound – but Boy normally didn’t mind his own company. Ever since his mam had died though, Violet noticed her friend didn’t want to return to Wickham Terrace unless William was there, and William was working so much lately that Boy had practically spent the whole summer at the Browns’. Violet had overheard her mam whisper that Boy’s dad was burying himself in his work.

  The pair normally stayed in the basement, using the large steel desk to finish their school stuff. Then, if they got everything done, sometimes Eugene gave them money and they’d race to Sweet Patisserie on George’s Road for buns before the baker’s shop closed for the evening.

  “Seems Marjory Blot has the same nose for a story as Robert. It must run in the family,” Eugene said, staring at the Tribune now opened on the table.

  Robert Blot, Marjory’s brother, had once run the local paper but had given up his position when he was offered a place on the Town Committee. His sister now wrote the news and Violet had often seen her sneaking through the streets wearing sunglasses as if she were some sort of undercover detective. It was kind of funny since the woman’s mass of white frizzy hair meant she could never be mistaken for anyone else.

  “What’s the story?” Rose asked, looking up from Violet’s copybook.

  “The missing scientist, the one I was telling you about, Dr Joseph Bohr. Marjory has written an article on him. The whole thing is very strange really – it says he was taken in the middle of the night, straight from his home.”

  “Oh! Iris knew him!” Boy said excitedly, clearly looking for more distraction. “She told Dad about it the other day. I think she worked with him or something, like a million years ago.”

  “Your granny’s not that old, Boy!” Rose laughed.

  “Iris must have had important friends. Dr Bohr is one of the world’s greatest minds, though he’s long retired now. I must pick your granny’s brain – it’d be interesting to hear all about him. Fascinating man, fascinating mind!” Eugene shook his head.

  “You’ve skipped a few questions, Violet.” Rose gestured to the page in front of her.

  “No I haven’t,” Violet said, walking over to the table. Her cheeks flushed as her mother silently pointed to the book. “It’s this place, Mam, the eyes creep me out. I can’t concentrate with them watching me the whole time!” she snapped defensively.

  “That’s a silly excuse, pet,” Rose said. “You’d better do them or Mrs Moody will be writing more notes in your diary.”

  Violet huffed and sat back down at the table beside Boy, pulling over her book to read the first missing question.

  “The eyes made me do it!” Boy teased quietly as Rose disappeared back up the stairwell.

  “Very funny.” Violet swiped a look at her friend.

  “I thought you weren’t scared of anything?” he continued.

  “What do you mean? I’m not!” she replied, trying to write her answer.

  “What about the eye plants then?” he smirked.

  “I’m not scared of them, Boy, they just freak me out. They’re disgusting!”

  “You seem pretty scared to me!”

  “I’m not!” she snapped, flustered, as she picked up an eraser to rub out a mistake.

  “Well, if you’re not scared then prove it! I dare you to stay in the eye-plant field tonight!” Boy whispered.

  Violet stopped what she was doing, looking up to make sure her dad hadn’t heard. “The whole night?”

  “No, just maybe…fifteen minutes. I dare you to spend fifteen minutes alone in the eye-plant field tonight.” Boy grinned. “You can call it an early birthday present to me! You keep asking me what I want!”

  “So for your birthday you’d like me to stay in a field? That’s not a present!” Violet said, her cheeks glowing red.

  “It’s not any field, Violet.” He put on a scary voice and stared straight at her as his dark eyes grew large. “It’s an EYE-PLANT FIELD. Anyway,” his voice changed back to normal, “the look on your face will be the best birthday present ever!”

  Boy’s thirteenth birthday was approaching in a few days and Violet had racked her brains for something to get him. It was the first since his mam had died and she wanted to make it nice so he wouldn’t be sad. She’d thought of baking a cake but the last time she’d tried that she almost burned down the kitchen. Then she’d considered a football or boots or even a skateboard, but nothing felt right, nothing seemed special enough.

  “That’s a stupid present – it’s just a dare, and anyway I won’t be scared!”

  “Then it’ll be easy.” Boy laughed, turning back to his book. “And it’s my birthday – you’re meant to do whatever I want!”

  Violet fumed into her book. Saying no to a dare, especially one from Boy, was almost impossible.

  “Okay,” she sighed, rubbing a frustrated fluff-filled hole in her page.

  Spending fifteen minutes in the field wasn’t that long – surely she could manage that. And it would wipe the smirk from Boy’s face – something she couldn’t wait to do, even if it was his birthday soon.

  Violet stayed deadly still as hundreds of eye plants slept around her. Their see-through petals cocooned rapidly moving pupils. She sat stiff on the damp soil, hugging her knees, afraid to breathe too deeply in case she woke the creatures. The shrill cries they let out when they were disturbed still haunted many of her dreams.

  She was meant to be at a Committee meeting but had told her dad she was going to Boy’s house to finish a school project. Boy had told William the same thing and the pair had met on the footbridge just as night was closing in.

  Her friend had handed her a walkie-talkie and pointed across the river.

  “I’ll be watching.” He looked serious. “You’ve to stay fifteen minutes otherwise I win!”

  “Win? This isn’t a competition, Boy, it’s a dare!”

  “Exactly, if you break the dare I win!”

  She willed herself not to respond. Her mam said she was the easiest person on earth to wind up. Violet knew it was true because, if it wasn’t, she wouldn’t be sitting in an eye-plant field right now, her best friend’s birthday or not.

  “Boy…Boy!” she hissed into the walkie-talkie. “Time has to be up now? I’ve definitely been here fifteen minutes!”

  The handset crackled, breaking the quiet. Violet jumped and shunted it under her jumper to dampen the sound.

  “No, not yet!” her friend’s voice filtered out through the wool.

  “How long’s left then?”

  “You’ve only been there, erm…” He hesitated. “Six minutes.”

  “No way, I’ve been here loads longer than that!” she whispered angrily.

  “Are you chickening out already?”

  She was sure Boy sniggered before the line went dead.

  “No I’m not!” she snapped, stabbing the call button.

  The plant beside her jerked. Violet froze. The creature fussed a little then settled back to sleep. She shifted uncomfortably, frustrated over Boy’s timekeeping. She was sure he was cheating.

  A sudden noise startled her. She turned towards it and spotted someone sneaking along the potholed road that cut through the middle of the plants. She craned her head to look.

  The hooded figure wore black and moved quickly through the field. She was sure it was Boy, obviously trying to play a trick on her. She shifted carefully onto all fours and crawled across the soil, between rows of sleeping plants, towards the road, determined to catch him in the act.

  She’d just reached the road when a large raven swooped down from the dark sky above and landed on what she had thought to be her friend’s shoulder.

  �
�Tom?” Violet gasped, her whisper loud in the quiet night.

  Boy’s identical twin brother turned and spotted her, his ice-blue eyes startling, their cold colour the only physical difference between him and his dark-eyed brother. Tom tripped as he scrambled forward and sprinted for the Ghost Estate. Violet climbed onto her feet and raced after him.

  She hadn’t seen Tom since just after Edward and George Archer were caught, having tried to take over Town for the second time. Edward, with the aid of Tom, plus a strange zombie creature called the Child Snatcher and a crazy nurse named Priscilla Powick, had captured two of Town’s children and pointed the blame towards Boy and William. Then, staging the children’s rescue, Edward had returned to Town a hero and released his brother George. The pair worked on setting the Townsfolk against each other in order to win back control, until Violet, Boy and the others stopped them, tragically losing Boy and Tom’s mam, Macula Archer, in the process as she tried to save her sons.

  Violet had last seen Tom secretly visiting his mother’s grave. He’d run away and she’d felt guilty since. Before Macula died she’d asked Violet to help bring her twins together so they could be a proper family, but so far Violet hadn’t done anything about that promise.

  Boy and Tom didn’t grow up together. Way back at the beginning of Perfect, after William Archer had disappeared, Macula stumbled across Edward and George’s terrifying plans for their town. They aimed to control everyone, using their rose-tinted glasses to steal people’s imaginations. Anyone who didn’t conform would be thrown into No-Man’s-Land, a place cut off from the rest of the town by a huge wall. Petrified, Macula gave birth to her twin sons in secret and, to protect them from their uncles, left her babies outside the orphanage in No-Man’s-Land to be brought up there without anyone knowing who they were.

  Tom had been taken from the orphanage as a child by Nurse Powick, who’d worked there. She’d reared him and forced him to do terrible things, so people thought Tom was bad. But, just like Boy’s mother, Macula, Violet believed Tom was a good person who’d never been given the chance to show it. Firstly, Tom had a pet raven that he really seemed to love and Violet didn’t think a bad person could be nice to animals. And secondly, when Edward and George had tried to take back Town, Tom had saved Violet – once from the Child Snatcher as it attacked her outside her home, and then from the same monster in the graveyard, with Nurse Powick standing just metres away.