Free Astrosaurs 3 by Steve Cole Page B

full of water?”
    â€œWe cryptoclidus live on land as well as in the sea,” Cripes reminded him.
    â€œThe food is easier to pack when it’s not floating around all over the place!”
    Arx plodded over to a wall and prodded a button with his longest horn. Everyone jumped as the machines sparked into life. The conveyor belt jerked forwards. Metal scoops swung down from the wonky ceiling.
    â€œCool – the machines still work!” shouted Teggs over all the noise. “What do they do?”
    â€œThe shellfish plop out of this pipe here onto the conveyor belt,” Cripes explained over the din. “Then they’re wrapped up in the wrapping machineand sent upstairs to the spaceships. But nothing has come through that pipe for weeks and in the meantime, the people back home are going hungry.”

    Teggs felt sad watching the ruined machines clanking away with no purpose. But before he could turn them off, he felt the ground shake beneath his feet.
    â€œThat’s not the builders starting work on the repairs already, is it?” asked Gipsy nervously.

    Suddenly, the whole factory rocked as if a giant had kicked it. The astrosaurs were knocked off their feet. The cracks in the walls widened. The floor broke open beneath them, and sea water began rushing in.
    â€œNever mind the builders!” cried Teggs over the din of the machines and the churning water. “I think the thing that attacked this place before has come back to finish it off!”

Chapter Two
THE SINISTER SHADOW
    â€œQuick, you guys!” yelled Commander Cripes. “Back to the lift!”
    Iggy and Gipsy didn’t need telling twice. They quickly splashed over to the lift. Teggs and Arx began to follow. But before they could reach the others, the floor before them crumbled away into the water.
    â€œWe’re cut off!” cried Arx.
    â€œIggy! Gipsy!” shouted Teggs. “Get out of here now, while you can!”
    â€œBut we can’t leave you!” called Gipsy. “You’ll drown!”
    â€œThat’s an order!” Teggs bellowed.

    Iggy sadly saluted him, and Cripespressed a button. The lift clanked slowly upwards.
    â€œWe’ll get help!” Gipsy called. Then they were gone.
    Arx yelped as a large chunk of falling ceiling nearly squashed him. “Come away from the edge, Captain!” he shouted. “If you fall down there you’ll never get out again!”
    â€œWait!” Teggs called, rooted to the spot. “Look! Something’s moving down there!”
    Arx edged closer. Sure enough he saw a dark shadow in the oily water. It looked like the shadow of something very big and very, very dangerous.

    â€œIf only we could get a closer look at it,” said Teggs.
    â€œCaptain,” Arx gasped. “If the water level keeps rising,
it
might swim up here to get a closer look at
us!”
    Together they backed away from the edge. The freezing cold water was now up to their chins.
    â€œThis looks like the end,” sighed Arx.
    â€œWe’ll find a way out,” said Teggs bravely. He tried to think, but it wasn’t easy with the noise of the clanking machines all around him.
    Then he had a brainwave.
    â€œThe machines!” he cried. “If we can climb up onto the machines, we’ll be higher up. The water will take longer to reach us!”
    Teggs grabbed hold of one of the dangling scoops with his beak. He used it to haul himself up onto the clanking conveyor belt. Arx tried to do the same, but he struggled. Teggs wrapped his tailround the triceratops’s head frill and helped him up.
    â€œNow the water only comes up to our toes!” beamed Teggs.
    â€œBut we’re heading for the wrapping machine!” cried Arx. “It’ll squash us into a parcel!”
    â€œNo, it won’t,” said Teggs, smashing his big, bony tail into the machine. It exploded in a cloud of sparks. “I think it’s out of