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

by Ryan Mark

  ‘How d’ya get it?’ He shook the glass and watched the small chalky lump dissolve in the water, fizzing slightly.

  ‘Terrafall made us VICs,’ said Althea, shrugging. ‘It’s kind of good because we’ve got Grandad’s arthritis to worry about and we get access to medicine. And he’s beginning to get really confused lately, so Terrafall might be able to give us something for that too.’

  ‘VICs?’ asked William, downing the liquid with a grimace.

  ‘Very Important Citizens, because we grow food for the town. Terrafall needs it more than ever, now that the tremors are getting worse, so it’s made it clear it needs us, I suppose.’

  ‘How come I haven’t heard of it?’ William asked.

  ‘Only people who grow food get given it when they supply a certain amount. I guess we hit the target. We’ve been given extra protection too. Terrafall sent over three more Enforcers to guard the cul-de-sac.’

  The mention of the guards spurred his memory. His mother! The pain of the night before had almost blinded him to reality.

  ‘What are we going to do about my mum?’ he asked, attempting to climb out of bed, but falling back again. ‘Crap, my head…’

  ‘Tell me everything that happened. From the beginning.’

  William sank back into the pillow, closed his eyes and began recalling the events of the previous night, even though it brought tears to his eyes and caused the pain in his head to intensify.

  Althea jumped up. ‘Right, first we’re going to have something to eat, and then I think we should go to the Peace Station and report what’s happened,’ she said. ‘We’ll need to be careful too. If there really is someone after you, who’s to say they won’t have followed you?’

  ‘You don’t think we should go back to the house?’ said William.

  ‘Might not be safe.’

  He tried sitting again, and this time managed to step out of bed. On top of the covers he found a clean set of clothes waiting for him and slowly pulled them on. Not only did his head throb, but he remembered how he’d also jarred his knee. He hobbled a bit but didn’t fall. ‘To be honest I don’t actually care. I just want to find her, Alfie.’

  ‘We will. There’ve been so many abductions that the Peace Force must have something in place for when it happens. At least, I hope they do.’ Althea smiled reassuringly, briefly stepping out of view behind some crates. She appeared again wearing black trousers and a grey cardigan draped loosely over a purple top.

  ‘God knows how long it’ll take though,’ replied William, rubbing his sore knee.

  ‘Kentvale isn’t too big, so if she’s been taken she couldn’t have gone too far,’ Althea said, after which she paused for a moment to massage her temples. ‘The Enforcers might be in my bad books for not helping my parents, but they’ll know more about what’s been happening on the streets so they might have news, or at least a clue. We can’t pass up on that possibility.’ She headed out of the room as she spoke.

  ‘But from what I heard last night, no one’s been found alive yet,’ said William, slowly following her, wary of the wobbliness of his legs.

  Althea stopped for a second but didn’t say anything, then continued to stride on.

  William thought back to what the Enforcers had said the night before: ‘Dead as always…’ He shivered.

  The pungent smell of boiling cabbage and herbs hit William’s nostrils as they entered the cluttered kitchen. Althea insisted he ate, as she figured out he’d not eaten since The Brambles. His stomach felt hollow, so despite the pressing need to get to the Peace Station, he agreed.

  ‘I thought I’d make you something. I was worried about you after last night,’ said Ori, Althea’s brother. He stood by the stove, his wooden spoon barely making contact with the saucepan he was stirring. He was wearing faded superhero pyjamas and a blue dressing gown, his big brown eyes twinkling as he beamed at William. ‘You feeling better now, Will?’

  ‘Been better, mate.’ William smiled in return as he took the cabbage and ruffled Ori’s bright blond hair. The kid was wise beyond his years; William supposed he had to be.

  ‘Oh, so Robin Hood has come for breakfast. Well I never!’ exclaimed Althea’s grandfather, Jim, who sat in a wooden chair by the stove. ‘I must get some gardening done today, Althea darling.’

  Althea crossed the room and patted her grandfather’s arm. ‘Grandad, it’s William, not Robin! Remember? Ori, have you given him some breakfast?’ She tucked a blanket around her grandfather and seeing Ori shake his head, passed the old man a bowl of cabbage.

  ‘Oh Alfie, you do look like your mother. I haven’t seen her in some time, Alfie. I do miss her. My arms ache.’ His brow furrowed. ‘I must go, those vegetables won’t grow themselves you know! And you, Robin, better not swing from my vines again!’ His face went blank. ‘You’re not Robin, are you? Oh, I do forget things. It’s all muddled up there you know,’ he finished, tapping the side of his head.

  William frowned. Although he’d grown used to Jim, sometimes the randomness of the comments took him by surprise. To forget things, even the most simple of things like names and whether people had died, was cruel. Almost worse than death, he supposed. He couldn’t imagine forgetting about those who meant so much to him.

  Like his father.

  Or mother.

  William ate quickly. The sooner they were on their way to the Peace Station to report his mother’s disappearance – he shook his head – abduction, the better.

  William finished his breakfast and looked at the clock. ‘We should set off,’ he said, standing. The sudden movement caused his head to throb.

  Althea swung on her rucksack. ‘Let’s go,’ she said, kissing Ori on the cheek. ‘Look after Grandad. And make sure he doesn’t do too much in the allotment. You know what he’s like, always overdoing it.’

  ‘Don’t worry Alfie, I’ve got it covered. He turns into old Grandad when he gets near that veg, plus I think I’m picking up a few things from him.’ Ori unlocked the door for them. ‘Good luck, Will. I hope you find her, I really do.’

  ‘Me too, mate,’ replied William, rubbing Ori’s shoulder as he went through the door.

  ‘William,’ Jim’s voice boomed out across the kitchen.

  William paused, half out of the door.

  ‘I may forget things from time to time, but I do remember your mum, and I hope you find Judy, she is a great woman,’ said his friend’s grandfather.

  William nodded, appreciating the fact that Jim had said ‘is’ and not ‘was’, and walked outside.

  They came out of the cul-de-sac and into the main street. A few market stalls scattered the breadth of it, mostly filled with harvested food as well as worthless rubbish that the poorer people wanted to trade for the items they needed.

  That’s how people got by now. They swapped what they had in order to make a living. Money was worthless, which was why most of the shops and buildings lining the road were boarded up and no longer in use. Any bartering or trading had to be done outside, where Terrafall’s Enforcers could keep an eye on things. William knew they did this to make sure that no one traded anything important like weapons, which could be used against the town rulers.

  William limped along determinedly, but something caught his eye. He peered into a doorway and spied the moving outline of a person. Looking more closely, the sight that greeted him was shocking.

  ‘Do you have any food?’ he asked Althea.

  ‘Why?’

  William pointed. Sure they were in a rush, but he had to help this woman, who seemed to be one of the walking, or rather crouching, dead. Her skin was sucked deep into her face, cheekbones protruding at horrifying angles.

  Althea quickly complied and placed a solitary carrot in his hand. ‘Happy to help but I only had two and we’ve got to be careful! VICs or not, we’ve only got cabbage, lettuce and some parsley in the allotment, and a few cans of soup to last us the month.’ She grimaced. ‘And I know for a fact those cans went out of date a month ago.’


  Thanking her, William knelt down and passed the carrot to the elderly woman, curled up under a ragged hessian sack.

  ‘Bless you, child, bless you both,’ she said, gently stroking William’s hands before hungrily beginning to gnaw on the carrot.

  ‘Stay safe,’ William replied, nodding. He got up and they carried on walking.

  ‘You’re too nice,’ said Althea, after a while.

  ‘Hey, the carrot was yours.’ William nudged her playfully. ‘By the way, I owe you for these clothes, too.’ The old woman’s gratitude seemed to be infectious.

  ‘It’s fine, they were my dad’s. I don’t think Ori will be needing them anytime soon,’ said Althea, linking William’s arm. ‘Dad always said, when a man’s gone his spoils should be–’

  She was cut off by a voice squawking: ‘The people at Terrafall take our food! They sit in their mansions and watch as this town, this world, crumbles! When it ends you can bet they will be locked up safe in their bunkers while we’re left to die. I tell you, vote against them; vote for a fairer system!’

  The voice belonged to a raggedly dressed man with no hair on the crown of his head, standing on a plinth in the centre of the main road. As they watched ten Enforcers quickly surrounded him, and before he could utter another word the preacher was dragged off.

  ‘I think I saw that guy preaching the day my parents… you know. He got dragged off to The Pit then, too. He must have gotten out. I didn’t think that was possible.’

  William looked across at her as she led them through the crowd that had gathered to watch the spectacle. He took her hand.

  ‘Is it three months since they died?’ he asked. ‘My mind’s a bit fuzzy this morning. I think it was just after we got moved here wasn’t it? A month before Dad…’

  Althea breathed in, green eyes looking up. ‘About three months, yeah,’ she said, breathing out.

  Pain mixed with raw emotion suddenly made William feel nauseous. ‘It’s so flippin’ crap. I wish people could just work together instead of hurting each other…’

  ‘I wish it were that simple,’ Althea said, her mouth set in a straight line. ‘We just have to hope the Peace Force can help you now, don’t we?’ She tightened her grip on William’s hand.

  William pushed himself to walk faster, ignoring the punching pain. The cobbles, numerous cracks, market stalls and scurrying people made it difficult to make any sort of meaningful progress, but they did their best to move quickly.

  They passed the clock tower of the town hall, which rose into the sky in front of them, the weathervane reaching an impressive height even though its stature had been disfigured by the tremors. The tremors had knocked off the Corinthian pillars, the gargoyles and even the original façade, but Terrafall always found a way to restore it. William couldn’t count how many times it had been rebuilt. Terrafall had recently declared in a news report that it was a symbol of hope; that as long as the clock tower stood, Kentvale would survive.

  William rolled his eyes. As if. It was just another way of keeping control.

  The huge black hands slowly stroked the Roman numerals to which they pointed. The clock’s four milky, glass faces reflected light onto the street, their golden frames almost adding a bit of teasing grandeur to the town, something it had completely lost.

  Gazing at the clock face, William told Althea, ‘It’s still only eight. Means we have plenty of daylight hours to search.’

  ‘We’ll find her.’ Althea squeezed his hand. ‘Sure, the people at the Peace Force can be a bit rubbish – I mean, they haven’t managed to find who was behind my parents’ murders yet, but you never know. You might get lucky.’

  ‘Someone has to,’ William murmured, as the Peace Station came into view: a crumbling, modern three-storey complex cowering behind the town hall. William and Althea stepped up the building’s front stairs, Althea taking two at a time, William taking far longer thanks to his injuries.

  ‘Here we go,’ said Althea when he’d joined her at the top. She pushed open the cracked glass door.

  The moment they entered, William wanted to turn right back around and run as fast as his crippled body would allow him to.

  All eyes in the huge reception hall fell on them, the echoing creak of the hinges of the huge glass door only adding to the atmosphere of utter silence and grim desperation they’d walked into. William gulped.

  He had to do this.

  For his mum.

  And for himself.

  Chapter 5

  Answers

  Everyone stared, completely still, paused in what they were doing. They were all Peace Enforcers, dressed in the light blue uniform of the Peace Force, complete with cape and baton. Nobody else stood in the reception hall. One of the Enforcers, a woman, stood filing a piece of paper, eyes locked in a narrow frown.

  ‘Err, they’re not talking,’ whispered William, searching for Althea’s hand. ‘What’s going on? They all look angry. It’s like they don’t want us here…’

  ‘It’s why people are scared of them. Most of them are just bullies, especially the ones who sit on their bums in the offices,’ replied Althea softly, pulling him towards the reception desk. ‘But we’re not going to let that stop us.’

  ‘Great, just what I wanted to hear,’ whispered William, looking over the desk.

  The stout, bespectacled woman with bushy brown hair stopped filing and sat down behind the desk, glaring at Althea. ‘Back again, Miss Oakenwood?’ She gave a long, dramatic drawn-out sigh. ‘We told you, the criminals behind your parents’ murders still haven’t been found. And probably won’t be. Bandits were most likely behind it. They’ve attacked many farms under Terrafall’s protection. I hope you can believe this, it’ll help you move on.’

  ‘I’ve only been here twice! Once when it first happened and one check up call!’ Althea scowled back. ‘The Peace Force isn’t doing its job, is it? And for your information, I didn’t come here for me; I came here with a friend who needs your help.’

  ‘Really,’ the woman said, unimpressed.

  William stepped forward. ‘My house got broken into and I think the people who did it took my mum!’ He almost shouted the words. Wow, he didn’t realise he still had some strength in him. He lowered his voice, ‘There was blood and it looked like there’d been a struggle. S–someone came after me too.’

  ‘You’ll have to join the queue of people who’ve reported abductions. The list of the missing in Archive Row is getting longer every day. The Force is stretched, we just don’t have the resources anymore,’ replied the receptionist. ‘I’m sorry, but you should probably just forget about her, like so many others have had to do with their loved ones.’

  William looked at the floor, eyes glossing over. ‘I can’t just forget, don’t say that. She’s all I have, she’s all I–’ He breathed in. ‘Please, you have to do something…’

  The fluorescent lights bore down on them, as if silently watching the spectacle unfold. William hated their harshness.

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  Althea snapped. ‘Typical! I had a feeling you’d be useless, but I thought you’d have something in place by now to deal with the abductions! For goodness’ sake, there’s been so many!’ She thumped her hands onto the desk, glaring at the woman, eyes on fire.

  The woman leaned back and her voice dropped to an almost silent whisper. ‘Stop, please, I wish I could, but I just can’t. They’ll kill…’ She was cut off by a groaning noise, and then the ground began to shake, plastic light fittings raining down like falling icicles. It felt as though the grooved carpet was being tugged from beneath William’s feet, but he didn’t care.

  ‘A tremor, we have to move!’ screamed Althea.

  A light dropped from the ceiling, smashing into the reception desk, sparks flying everywhere. William was blasted backwards, taking Althea with him. They landed in a heap on the cracked floor by the entrance. William felt pain from his forehead and leg, but managed to pull himself and Althea up. They threw open the door and fell into
the street.

  Hundreds of screams leaked into the air from the market they’d passed earlier.

  ‘Don’t really know why they’re screaming, I’m more scared of how normal the tremors are starting to feel, to be honest,’ said Althea, breathing deeply.

  They composed themselves, watching as people ran back and forth, some with severe injuries clearly apparent.

  ‘What are we going to do now?’ Althea asked, hands on her knees, panting still. ‘I shouldn’t have suggested going to them. I’m sorry; I just thought the Enforcers might’ve given us something. They’re useless. I’ll never go there again. They’ve failed my parents, and now they’ve failed your mum. It makes me so mad!’

  ‘It wasn’t a complete waste of time,’ William replied. ‘She mentioned the Archive Row, so we could go there. We might kill two birds, as they say. Remember what we saw yesterday? The place was locked up and the Peace Enforcers looked like they were up to something, so there could be something there.’ He thought for a moment. ‘Mum could’ve been taken for slavery or, well, something else; if we can find out who else has been abducted it might give us a clue, a link. The archives could tell us that.’

  ‘Do you think the Peace Force has missed something, or they’re deliberately trying to cover something up?’

  William began limping down the rubble-filled street. ‘Yeah I do, didn’t you see that woman’s face? She was scared. If Archive Row is where all the abductions have been listed we might as well give it a try.’

  ‘So we just go in there and raid their files? Isn’t that a bit dangerous?’

  ‘That’s the idea. Look, I have to find her Althea, no matter what. Even if she’s…’

  ‘She’s alive, be optimistic William, but how are we going to get in? That building is probably the most secure place in town,’ said Althea, allowing herself a wry grin. ‘I suppose a bit of detective work will be cool though, it’ll be like we’re spies.’

  ‘We’ve got to be careful, but if we find out Terrafall are up to something, I’ll let you open a whole can of beatings on them.’ William mustered some humour despite the pain and his all-consuming mix of emotions.