Tremor: If your world was falling apart, how far would you go to save it? (The Tremor Cycle) (3 page)

His mind was quickly brought back to the pavement when two men, wearing tatty blue capes, strode onto it, heading straight for him. Stepping into an open doorway and out of sight, he watched as they began to scan the area. He could see they both had jagged crosses clipped to their collars, a symbol that represented Terrafall. He shuffled back, pushing himself further into the shadows, and listened.

‘Can’t believe we’re still having to do this. It’s been nearly two and a half years since we left those bunkers, and the radiation has never risen to dangerous levels,’ said the taller of the two. He pulled out a device that resembled a microphone and held it in the air, running his other hand through the willow-like mess that covered his jawline. ‘How’s it looking?’

William rolled his eyes. Yet another example of how Terrafall kept technology to itself.

‘I’ll just check,’ said the second, boasting an even bushier beard. He looked down at the metallic box attached to his partner’s belt, which the microphone trailed from. ‘No change.’

‘See, what’s the point? Barely any nukes were used during the war because of the T-bombs. Replaced them didn’t they,’ the first replied, letting his arm drop. ‘I mean, why use a nuke that could potentially backfire on you with radiation when you can use a weapon that just blasts your enemies to pieces, and on a larger scale too?’

‘I wouldn’t have liked to have been caught up in a T-blast though. From what I’ve heard it turned the ground beneath you into a mouth, the very rocks becoming knife-edged teeth. Then, as if that weren’t enough, the crust would blow upwards and smash down on anything that remained in one last explosion.’ The second held up his hand and brought it down on the other, the clap making William flinch. ‘And don’t you forget what those T-bombs have left us with. It might not be radiation, but it sure as hell isn’t anything less destructive!’

‘Yeah, but Terrafall will stop the tremors. I’m sure,’ said the first, patting his partner’s back. ‘That’s why I think us doing this is pointless. We ought to be helping with the tremors.’

‘Yeah, yeah, but who are we to argue?’ said the second, heading off with his partner. ‘Have you heard about the abduct…’ Their voices trailed off, gradually turning into inaudible murmurs.

William slunk out of his hiding place and walked on again, shaking his head. As if Terrafall would be able to stop the tremors now. Terrafall had lost his father, its best geologist, so it had no chance as far as he was concerned. But his mother wouldn’t agree, she was blinded by Terrafall’s promises, even though it had failed to prevent his father’s death.

Terrafall might’ve brought the survivors together and given them some small comforts, but his mother couldn’t see what the mysterious organisation was truly like, see that it was using the crappy stuff it gave away as a means to sustain power. He spat out the sour taste that had built up from thinking about the huge, faceless controller.

‘It’s gross to spit, Will,’ came a voice from behind.

‘Althea.’ He turned, his lips slowly curving into a smile.

Althea walked straight towards him, hair the colour of late autumn leaves, a halo of red framing her pretty face. ‘Why didn’t you meet me?’ she said, shoving his shoulder, her green eyes locked in a narrow glare.

‘Sorry, I’ve a lot on my mind, must’ve forgotten.’ He shrugged, meeting her intense gaze before blushing and quickly looking down.

Her expression softened. ‘You’ve been up all night again, haven’t you? Working on that tremor stuff, I bet.’ Althea sighed. ‘I know how hard it is. I’ve really struggled without either of my parents, but you can’t let it eat you up. Try and get on with life, otherwise you’ll find you have no life left.’

‘You call this living?’ he whispered, not looking at her. ‘You sound like my Mum. If you’re going to be like that, just leave me alone!’ He turned away, but something stopped him from walking off.

‘Will.’ She placed a hand on his back. ‘I’ve been your best friend forever. I’m not going to leave you. How could I leave the only friend I have who remembers what it used to be like?’

William didn’t say a word. When Terrafall brought all the survivors together after the war, he’d found out that most of his friends, his schoolmates had vanished.

‘I know it’s hard, and two months is such a short time to get over what happended to your dad. But look at the world we live in. You have to be strong,’ said Althea, gripping his shoulder. ‘Remember when we found that injured rabbit and your dad said there was nothing we could do? He said the best thing we could do was to put it to sleep? You were stronger than me back then, you agreed. I couldn’t. You need to find that strength again. For me, for your mum.’

Reluctant to argue, William nodded.

‘Why didn’t you wait for me, anyway? We’re not supposed to walk alone.’

William didn’t answer. He’d walked alone lots of times, when he needed to clear his head, or just forget, but he didn’t tell Althea or his mother that. Althea liked to take care of him, which suited him fine, most of the time.

‘You forgot me, didn’t you?’ she said, shaking her head and playfully punching him.

William scowled and rubbed his arm. ‘Crap, Alfie, that hurt.’

‘I don’t care. You need to pay more attention.’ She pulled her long, grey cardigan back onto her shoulders.

Not bothering to reply, he accepted her arm when it came to link with his and passed the rock he’d been kicking down the street to her as they walked on. She kicked it back when they turned down a quiet road that led away from the centre of town.

They walked in silence, skipping over the numerous fissures in the tarmac, keeping the rock in play between them. William kicked it a little too hard and it shot off into a gated street. He stopped and looked through the bars at the government buildings.

‘Archive Row. It’s been locked up,’ he said, shaking the padlock chained onto the double gates. ‘I suppose that means the library’s closed too, then.’

‘Yeah, I guess it does. I think someone in the market said it was locked up when the night abductions started getting really bad.’ Althea stepped up behind him. ‘A lot of the town’s council staff live down there, too. Trying to protect themselves, I guess.’

‘Why does Terrafall keep doing stuff like this? It can’t just seal off the library! There’s going to be nothing left for us to do.’ William kicked the gate. ‘I liked the library.’

‘Shhh, look! There’s something going on down there.’ Althea pointed ahead.

Beyond the entrance, in the wide road that stretched before them, were three parked armoured trucks, each with the jagged cross of Terrafall engraved into their rusted surfaces. A group of Terrafall Peace Enforcers, wearing the official blue uniform with capes and black helmets, were carrying folders towards the large building at the end. William wondered, not for the first time, how Terrafall managed to source those uniforms, when the rest of the population couldn’t find a spare tyre or toothpaste.

‘They look a bit shifty,’ whispered William.

‘When have the Peace Force not looked shifty?’ Althea turned away, auburn hair whipping her cheeks. ‘As far as I’m concerned, they’re a bunch of idiots. They didn’t help my parents when they needed support at the farm. It should’ve been protected. They were growing food for this town, for goodness’ sake!’

William grabbed her hand, sensing the anger building in her face. He wouldn’t put it past her to go and tell them off. He could see her now, scaling the fence, fists at the ready.

‘Let’s get out of here.’

‘Makes you miss the days when the police were in charge, doesn’t it?’ said Althea, squeezing his hand.

William nodded. The Peace Force was the organisation that replaced the police when Terrafall rebuilt society after the war. Its Peace Enforcers ruled the streets. The Enforcers’ job was to keep the streets clean and safe, and boy did they do that. If you were found out after the night curfew you risked being thrown into the Prison Pit, or worse. And all because of the Scavengers: desperate souls who came out at night to forage for food and other commodities.

Making Althea step away, William gulped. It was impossible not to feel on edge whenever the Enforcers were close.

Chapter 2

School and Back

Parr secondary school came into sight as they rounded the next corner – a big old gothic pile with spires and wide-vaulted windows, surrounded by a mess of crumbling modern buildings. William trudged through the entrance archway, which he suspected might come down in the next big tremor, vigilant for any new cracks that might have appeared overnight.

‘What’s your first period?’ asked Althea, stopping in front of the main entrance.

‘Science with Mr Blobby.’ William opened the big oak door in front of them, although they’d been told to use the doors to the rear, which had been made safe. It creaked and fell inwards to the floor, sending a crescendo of noises across the school grounds as it splintered into about twenty small pieces.

‘Oh God, quick!’ Althea grabbed his sleeve and pulled him through the doorway and into the hall. All was quiet. They raced around the corner towards a bank of classrooms at the back of the building.

‘Sorry,’ William panted. ‘Stupid thing to do.’

‘You should be. We could’ve been fined electricity rights or food for that one.’ She grinned as she caught her breath. ‘Meet you back here after class, OK?’

He nodded and Althea skipped off down a dusty hall.

William wandered off in the opposite direction. He opened the door to G1, where he had science, though he could have easily stepped through the huge, gaping crack in the wall to the left. He did it out of normality, trying to forget about the reality that surrounded him.

Eight other students sat in the room, poor sods whose parents thought, like William’s mum, that there was still hope. He sighed, and pulled the journal and some pencils out of his bag.

‘Hey Willy, still alive then,’ said a greasy-haired boy slouching against a table at the back of the room. His tone was one of complete disappointment.

‘Yeah, suppose I am, Chris,’ replied William, biting his tongue to try to stop himself from throwing back an insult.

‘That dump of a house you live in can’t last much longer, can it?’ Chris said, snickering. ‘Can’t imagine what it’s like to live in such a tip.’

William ground his teeth. Chris had to be the most arrogant little creep left on the planet, which wasn’t helped by the fact that his father was mayor, and that they had one of the sturdiest mansions in town, complete with an underground bunker.

‘If your dad didn’t suck up to Terrafall like he does, you’d be living like the rest of us, you know that?’ William couldn’t help himself.

Everyone knew that Chris’s dad, Mayor Greystone, did a rubbish job as mayor. Nothing would happen until someone complained to Terrafall, and even then the complaints never made it far, because hardly anyone saw or even knew who was in charge of the covert company. The mayor was known as The Puppet, for he simply did exactly what the huge company told him to do.

The other kids began to laugh behind their hands, some silently encouraging Chris to get up and start on William. William rolled his eyes and turned his back.

‘I’m gonna permanently bury that geeky face of yours in that stupid book you’re so obsessed with. Don’t you dare talk about my dad like that!’ Chris moved forward, face blood red, but he quickly sat back down when the door began to rattle.

William settled into his seat, deliberately ignoring his nemesis.

‘Good morning class!’ boomed the familiar voice.

A heavy-set man entered the room and slammed the door shut. The doorframe shook slightly. He was large, very large. William always wondered how he’d managed to stay that size since the rationing had started and Terrafall had taken control of the food supply. Even Chris’s family didn’t seem to overindulge. You worked for your food, and got what they thought you needed. He’d probably stockpiled the contents of some grocery shop or something, William guessed.

‘Now, we got onto renewable powers last time. Yes, well it is my strongest belief that you, you mere children of what – fourteen, fifteen? – hold the keys to this crisis! You are the ones who will lead us into a brave new world!’

The teacher stood behind the desk, straightening the stained white shirt he wore, which really didn’t fit. It was tight around his gut, and the buttons were ready to pop. He turned to the whiteboard and scratched his thinning black hair before pulling out a black pen and beginning to write.

William opened his journal and started to read. Mr Blobby couldn’t teach him anything new, so he figured he had an hour of undisturbed reading. Perfect. He sank back into his seat. All he needed now was a cup of tea. He smirked. Dream on.

‘Mr Hoarden,’ said Chris, raising his hand and shaking it. ‘I don’t think William’s listening.’ He smirked when William glared back at him. ‘Reading again? You geek.’

‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ muttered William, closing the journal and pulling it onto his lap.

Mr Hoarden bounded over to William’s desk and held out a chubby hand. William looked up into his beady brown eyes and held the book tight.

‘I saw what you had there. It is a privilege to still be in school, you know that. How dare you waste time reading trivia! Hand it over!’ Mr Hoarden drew closer, his foul breath pushing through the bristles of his goatee. After a short tussle he managed to snatch the journal.

‘No!’ William tried to retrieve it, but failed.

The teacher flipped the pages. ‘A book about Terrafall? Oh my, this doesn’t appear to be an authorised copy, does it? You know the rules. This type of documentation is to be handed in for incineration.’

‘Give it back!’ said William, standing up.

The teacher walked back to his desk. ‘No, this is school property now.’

William banged his hand on his desk. ‘Give it back. Now! It’s mine!’

‘William loves his book. Totally weird,’ said Chris in a mock whisper. A few of the students in the class laughed out loud.

‘Books are only good for firewood now,’ commented another kid, Aiden. ‘That’s what my mum says.’

‘Poor William and his unnatural love of books,’ Chris said, more loudly this time.

‘William, sit down, and Chris, enough of that,’ said the teacher, placing the journal in a desk drawer. ‘I’ve told you, this is school property now.’

‘That’s my damn book, you fat idiot!’ William felt his face burn. ‘I want it back. NOW!’

‘How dare you! I think we’ll do Terrafall a favour, and as Aiden said, books are only good for one thing now.’ Mr Hoarden pulled out the journal and struck a match before throwing them both into a metallic waste-paper bin. A fire quickly flickered into life.

William lunged forward, but the flames had already taken hold, and there was no way he’d be able to reach in to grab the journal. ‘You stupid piece of crap!’

Mr Hoarden met William’s tone. ‘Get out of this room now!’ he yelled. ‘If you set foot inside this classroom again, I will personally see to it that you’re thrown into The Pit!’

William didn’t move, his eyes locked on the teacher in a death stare. What could he do now? The journal was gone, its pages swiftly devoured by the greedy fire and turning to scorched fragments. What good would ashes be? He took a breath, walked back to his seat, swung his bag over a shoulder and crashed out of the room, not looking at anyone, or even listening to the insults that followed him.

He stamped down the corridor, straight into a line of chairs outside what was once the headmaster’s office. Picking one up, he threw it across the hall, knocking down a bust of King Alexander, the last monarch to have ruled the United Kingdom before the war. The pieces shattered across the marble floor. Someone shouted at him from behind but he carried on without looking back.

Turning into another corridor, he began to pace the length of it, holding back the angry screams that were raging to be unleashed from deep within him. He thought of his father and something came to mind, a memory he thought lost: he was about seven, having a tantrum over a broken toy and his father dragged him to the piano and began guiding his fingers across the keys. ‘Learn to play; it’ll help funnel the anger. Let the keys absorb it and the sounds carry it away. That’s my boy.’

William headed straight for the music hall. It was piled with old glockenspiels, metal bars mostly gone, the ones remaining covered in rust. The back of the room was filled with electric keyboards, dust almost consuming them. But his attention was drawn to the sedate grand piano in the far corner.

Storming to the piano, William began to bash out some angry chords on its worn keys. He tried to push the anger into the tune he was playing, just as he’d been taught, but it wouldn’t work. He could feel the pressure building in his hands. He bunched his fingers into fists and slammed them into the piano, causing one of its legs to collapse.

Turning away in disgust, he threw the piano stool across the room and headed for the door. What that fat crappy teacher had done to him couldn’t be tamed by the out-of-tune piano keys. He punched his already sore hand into the plasterboard wall as he left the room.

Outside, spent, he sat down on a bench and buried his face in his hands. ‘Will, wake up, you sausage!’ Althea plonked herself down next to William, slapping his knee.

‘W–what?’ William wiped the drool from his mouth. He looked up. Althea’s querying green eyes stared back at him. He must have fallen asleep. ‘Oh, hey.’

‘Bad class?’

William nodded. ‘You have no idea. Can we bunk?’

‘Yeah, let’s go. Not much point in school anyway, is there? Not when it might fall down tomorrow.’

They left the school through another collapsed wall in the disused Drama block.

William linked Althea’s arm this time. ‘How was self-defence?’

‘Boring. I’m gutted I can’t do gymnastics anymore – I loved the beam. Could’ve gone national, my old coach said.’ Althea looked down. ‘I suppose the tremors make gymnastics pointless. You can’t do a sport like that when there might be a tremor at any moment, can you?’

William plodded beside her. ‘Well, nothing could be worse than science. I lost my dad’s journal.’

‘No! How?’

William relayed the sad story.

Althea squeezed his arm. ‘Mr Blobby is putrid. I swear he’d have eaten it if you’d not stood up for yourself. Listen, want to go back and mess with him later?’

‘No, we’d get thrown in The Pit. It’s over now.’

‘Maybe it’s for the best. You were getting obsessed.’

‘Let’s not talk about it, OK?’ William unlinked his arm. ‘If there was anything in there that could’ve helped, it’s gone.’

Could they really chance going back for revenge? No. The few remaining teachers in the settlement were idolised and Terrafall didn’t take kindly to kids who didn’t respect them. If they messed with Mr Blobby and people found out, they’d end up being mobbed, or maybe even… he stopped himself. The teachers were Terrafall’s way of making sure the younger generations were kept in check, teaching that Terrafall was the saviour. There was no way they could risk screwing with Mr Blobby.

Althea took a deep breath. ‘Want to go to The Brambles?’

William nodded; it was the best suggestion he’d heard all day. The Brambles was a secret place he and Althea found four months ago after he’d been moved to Kentvale – and the most succulent blackberries inexplicably grew there.

The thought of The Brambles made it easy to forget, if only for a while, about Mr Blobby and the journal. He hoped the remaining blackberries had ripened, as last time they’d demolished all the edible ones. It would be nice to take some back to his mother. God knew she deserved a treat.

They left the vicinity of the school and headed to a forgotten housing estate on the outskirts of town. The toppled terraces hid the old allotments from the street, their grey bricks surrounding the patch of prickly shrubs in a protective circle. William crawled through the hidden tunnel first, but it was Althea who grabbed the first branch.

‘Yummm,’ she said, through a mouthful of purple-black goo.

He smiled and began to pick his own.

They spent the next few hours in the old allotment, picking blackberries, staring up at the sun while they ate them, then chasing each other through the tangled bushes even though they felt far too full to move. The hours passed and before long, the sun began to seep down towards the horizon.

‘The sun’s setting,’ said William, wondering how time spent with Althea always went by so quickly. ‘Better get home before the Scavengers come out. It’s nearly curfew.’ So far, no one had actually seen the Scavengers do anything other than, well, scavenge for food. William was fairly certain that the threat was made up by Terrafall to control them, but he didn’t fancy being proven wrong.

‘If we’re out without street passes, the Enforcers will totally think we’re Scavengers,’ Althea said, grabbing William’s arm.

Rumour went that if you were found out after dark you’d be thrown into The Pit, a hole outside town where people who’d committed crimes were taken. Some said it was what had become of the bunkers, the place that sheltered the survivors during the war, but mainly it was described as a gloomy hell.

‘Let’s go. I need to get back and make sure Grandad’s alright, anyway. He’s probably overdone it in the vegetable patch, knowing my luck, and that’s not good for his muscles. And I bet Ori didn’t even try to stop him.’ She grabbed William’s hand and they exited The Brambles.

They ran through the dreary streets, now deserted and completely silent. The main housing areas were gated and protected by defensive walls of junk, most had guards at their entrances. William came to the protective barrier that sheltered his own street. He left Althea at the gate and slipped through, nodding at the guard, Victor, as he passed.

As he approached the house he knew immediately something was wrong.

‘What the…?’

The door’s wooden planks were splintered and lying in the hall on the other side.

William’s heart bashed at his ribs. His brain felt as if it were spinning in his skull. He trembled slightly, but managed to keep his balance by gripping the door frame.

What had happened? Who had done this? A Scavenger? William gulped in air, his eyes scanning every dark corner of the corridor in front of him. Had his mother been at home? He shivered, and quickly stepped over the collapsed pieces of wood, fists tight.