by Paul Teague
Joe counted off the levels one at a time: thirty, thirty-one, thirty-two … he should have reached thirty-eight by that stage, there was no way he could make it.
Everything in Joe’s body screamed at him to stop and give up. He knew he could never make it. Fortrillium had stacked events against him; they’d done this to punish him, he should never have dared to challenge their authority.
As he reached the forty-second floor, the stench of scorched flesh began to permeate the stairwell. The smoke became black and overwhelming as he neared the fiftieth floor, the place where his friend Zach had lived. Another friend who’d lost his life in The Grid.
Joe knew it was over as he reached the floor that had once offered sanctuary to him and his family. He knew what he was going to see when he walked through what was left of the burnt door.
On the floor, with hands and feet bound by wire, were the charred bodies of Jena, Dillon and Matt. They’d punished him for daring to rise against the might of Fortrillium by taking away from him the only thing he had left.
Just as he’d had his family within his grasp and everything he’d always wanted had almost been there for the taking, Fortrillium tore it away from him, dashing his hopes and bludgeoning them on a hard concrete floor.
On the screens, the watching crowds saw Joe’s heart rate had rocketed, reaching dangerous levels. Not only did he experience the real physical exhaustion of running up the stairs in his hallucination, he also felt every moment of fear and despair as his family slipped away from him.
Every moment was shared on the screens. The purpose of The Grid was to scare the residents of The City, to make them fearful of speaking out and to ensure they never raised a hand against Fortrillium. However, the effect of seeing these dreams was very different. Throughout Silk Road, and for those still paying attention in The Climbs, it was the humanity of the Justice Seekers that shone through. Here were people just like them, haunted by fears for their loved ones, too terrified to dream of a better life, exhausted by the perpetual struggle to survive. What they were seeing on the screens reflected their own lives, it was their own fears and nightmares they were watching through the eyes of others.
The people being tormented inside The Grid were not evil; they were not the monsters that had been depicted in the promo films and video bursts. They were regular citizens, taking each day at a time, fighting to stay alive and looking out for their loved ones. Their struggle was one and the same. As the scenarios played out on the screens, many on Silk Road turned away, switching off the feeds and preferring instead to spend time with their own families or alone with their thoughts.
Some became aware of more activity on the streets than usual. With the booming of the screen commentaries switched off, the world outside became more visible. There was a tension, a different atmosphere. Some turned their screens back on waiting for an announcement from Fortrillium, an update perhaps. They wondered if there was something going on, events which might interrupt their comfortable lives on Silk Road.
As the scenes played over and over on the screens, they were studied by a lone man sitting in his office. He’d watched the feeds of Joe Parsons and Lucy Slater with interest, but there was nothing much there for him to hold on to. Matt Parsons was still alive, there was a place beyond The Grid – he’d worked that out already. They were all up to speed on that information now.
It was the feeds from President Josh Delman and Teanna Schaelles that were proving far more interesting to him. He’d suppressed them on the main screens minutes after they’d appeared in The Grid. There was no way that he could let the people of The City see the truth about their President.
He’d got a feed patched directly through from the Gridders and he was studying the Psyche-Evals with great interest. He no longer needed to get his hands on the torn-out pages of The Pact. Damien Hunter had access to everything he needed inside the President’s head. In ignoring the final words of Reevil96, President Josh Delman had made his first careless move since entering The City. It was going to give his enemy the upper hand. He was about to reveal his own darkest secrets.
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Also by Paul Teague
Sci-Fi Starter Book - Phase 6
The Secret Bunker Trilogy
Book 1 - Darkness Falls
Books 2 - The Four Quadrants
Books 3 - Regeneration
The Grid Trilogy
Book 1 - Fall of Justice
Book 2 - Quest for Vengeance
Book 3 - Catharsis
Writing Thrillers as Paul J. Teague
Don’t Tell Meg Trilogy
Book 1 - Don’t Tell Meg
Book 2 - The Murder Place
Book 3 - The Forgotten Children
Author Notes
Phew!
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Who’d be Lucy or Wiz in Quest for Vengeance?
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They have their work cut out for them in this book, that’s for sure.
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I had great fun writing Wiz’s role in this book, the thought of him dangling from that pole like that would make a great scene in a film.
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He’s really high up too, so it would be a long, long way down for him.
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By the way - no spoilers here - but there’s worse to come for Wiz.
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Poor guy, if he thought that experience was terrifying, wait until you read what happens next.
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I love his character though, I picture him as tall, relaxed, cool and friendly, in spite of everything that’s thrown at him.
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As for Lucy, she gets to experience the twin joys of chasing off Schälen and being hunted by the beasts in the tunnels.
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Who want to be friends with Joe Parsons, look what happens to you when you are!
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By the way, the name Schälen is taken from the last of my remaining memories of the German language, which I studied when I was 18 years old.
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It means to peel or to excoriate, but I prefer the word excoriate because it’s much more sinister when used in connection with this particular man.
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As you can see, Schälen has a bit of an attitude problem - he doesn’t make friends easily.
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Just like many of the characters in this series, he was great to write as an author.
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All I had to do was to think ‘what nasty thing might a monster like Schälen do next?’
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That made my life easy, as the man is clearly capable of anything.
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Step-by-step, Joe is learning that he’s going to have to rise to the occasion if they’re all getting out of their situation alive.
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In fact, everybody is going to have to step up if Damien Hunter is going to be stopped dead in his tracks.
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Once you’ve read the book, check out this CLASSIFIED article at https://thegridtrilogy.com/secrets-2
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I wrote about the origins of Fortrillium in my standalone novel Phase 6 which links the worlds of The Secret Bunker and The Grid.
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Phase 6 shows Joe’s world in decay, though he’s not born yet in that book.
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You can see how society breaks down and the beginnings of the high walls that surround the decaying buildings.
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Where do you think The Grid is based?
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I kept it deliberately vague because, when I thought about it, it could be virtually any major city in the world.
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Most massive cities are built on a river, they tend to have very large parks and they mainly have high-rise buildings in their centre.
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I’d be interested to hear where you’d set the books in your own mind’s eye, if you register at http
s://thegridtrilogy.com/mail to receive my email updates, please let me know by replying to my first welcome email.
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So, what do you think will happen next?
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There are more twists and surprises to come and the high body count will continue.
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Believe me, nobody is safe in The Grid.
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All the best,
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Paul Teague
Get Connected With The Grid
Access the Secrets page for The Grid 1: https://www.thegridtrilogy.com/secrets-2
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Please keep in touch via social media, our blog or with our regular email updates: https://thegridtrilogy.com/book2
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You can also read The Secret Bunker Trilogy, also by Paul Teague: http://thegridtrilogy.com/TSB
About the Author
Hi, I'm Paul Teague, the author of the The Secret Bunker Trilogy and The Grid Trilogy as well as several other standalone psychological thrillers such as Burden of Guilt, Dead of Night and One Fatal Error.
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I'm a former broadcaster and journalist with the BBC, but I have also worked as a primary school teacher, a disc jockey, a shopkeeper, a waiter and a sales rep.
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I've loved sci-fi all of my life, starting with the Danny Dunn books and progressing to the huge franchises such as Terminator, Star Trek, Babylon 5, The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner series.
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Copyright © 2018 by Paul Teague
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