Tremor: If your world was falling apart, how far would you go to save it? (The Tremor Cycle) (6 page)

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.

‘A can? More like a barrel.’ Althea punched the air. ‘This is your mum we’re talking about. We’re not going to let her down.’

William’s smile didn’t disappear this time. Althea had a way of always saying the right thing to cheer him up. And she was right; he’d never let his mother down, not in a million years.

‘Don’t think you have to come with me, though. I don’t want to force you. It’s going to be dangerous and you still have family,’ William said, looking serious.

‘Don’t be stupid. We’re in this together.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Together!’

‘Together,’ repeated William.

‘That’s the spirit!’ Althea said, taking his arm.

They headed down the main street, stopping when they came to the padlocked Archive Row. William grabbed the lock with one hand and looked through the bars. The main archive building they were searching for was a grand lump of brick at the end of the road. A big sundial engraved into its grey tiles sent a threatening shadow through the narrow space, ending at the point where they were standing at the gate.

‘So, how are we going to get in and past those Enforcers?’ Althea said, hands on hips.

William continued staring down the street, examining the sides of the buildings until his eyes met exactly what he was looking for. He pointed to a siren attached to a lamppost close to the gate. ‘That’s going to get us in.’

‘How exactly?’

‘My dad wrote about one in his journal. We’re going to set it off,’ explained William, pointing to the two wires that led off it. ‘See those wires? One is hooked up to a tremor reader. So basically, when a really strong tremor is about to hit those sirens go off, giving the people who live in areas like this a chance to take cover.

‘They have them in all the important areas of town. Obviously that tremor we just had wasn’t as strong as it seemed.’ William scanned the floor and picked up a slice of metal, one side sharp, the other as thin as wire. ‘It’d cost Terrafall too much to put them all over town, so that’s why only the most important people get them.’

‘Was all this in the journal?’ Althea’s mouth stayed open slightly.

‘Yep, it didn’t just have loads of information about the tremors, but also stuff on Terrafall and how it operates. The Peace Enforcers who found my dad can’t have read it, because if they had I wouldn’t have got it back.’ William motioned her forward. ‘I’m going to cut the wire that links to the tremor reader, so the other wire should set the siren off. That’s the bit that makes the noise, but without the reader wire it’ll get confused and just blast.’

‘What do you want me to do?’

‘Keep watch,’ said William. He followed the wire with his eyes. It ran from the siren to the wall of the building next to the gate, and then straight down towards where they stood. Kneeling down by the left pole of the gate’s frame, William reached through the gap between it and the building, the blade of the metal stretched out.

As soon as the wire was cut, a low wailing noise penetrated Archive Row. The guards left their stations and headed to the corner of the street, disappearing down a manhole. William looked at Althea, and then at the padlock.

He swivelled the metal around in his hand, so the wiry end was aimed outwards, and carefully placed it in the padlock. He pulled a lock pick from his pocket and did the same, feeling his father’s initials scratched into its surface. ‘Got this one from my dad’s journal too.’ He wiggled it a couple of times, carefully listening to the clicks, and the padlock came off in his hands.

‘When did you learn to do that?’

‘About a week ago,’ replied William, slipping through the gate after Althea and quickly reattaching the padlock.

‘Why would your dad need to pick locks?’ Althea’s brow furrowed.

‘He must’ve got a lot of information about Terrafall from under the radar. I guess picking locks was one way to discover what was hidden from him,’ said William, shrugging.

‘I suppose,’ said Althea. ‘You sure we won’t get caught?’

‘Let’s check.’ William whistled and then quickly pulled Althea behind an old post box. There was no response. He let out a breath and stepped back into the street. ‘I guess the plan worked. All safe and sound in their bunkers.’

‘Our luck’s changing,’ said Althea, relaxing a little.

They climbed the stone stairs of the main archive building at the end of the street and pushed open the door. An echo from the hinges vibrated through the room on the other side. William paused. He tensed for a moment, leg muscles aching, but there was no reaction to the doors opening, so he slowly slipped through the gap, his feet skidding on the polished stone floor.

‘It’s clear,’ he whispered, after quickly scanning the room. ‘Careful you don’t slip.’

Althea joined him in the huge space on the other side. The green marble walls were crammed with rows of seemingly endless shelves, reaching far back and high up into the circular chamber, broken only by the odd, white pillar that held up the fractured domed roof. He scratched his head, avoiding the bandaged cut.

‘Where do we start?’ he asked, running a hand down one of the thin files that was neatly placed into the first set of shelves. ‘Do you think there’s a separate section for abductions?’

‘Yeah, there’s bound to be. It’ll have some order to it, archives always do,’ said Althea, walking over to a large desk close to the door. On it sat a book marked Catalogue.

Computers had become useless since the war, since the Internet had crashed and electricity was unreliable. Besides, there was no one left to maintain them.

William rolled his eyes at the leatherbound tome. He had always thought it’d be his generation who’d invent flying cars. No chance now. It was back to basics, for the majority of the population at least. Terrafall was holding onto some technologies, of course, the tremor readers were one example of that.

Althea ran her finger down the spine. ‘Here, I’m sure this’ll tell us which shelves to look on. It’s an old-fashioned inventory record, which I guess Terrafall has started to use again since the town’s databases probably won’t work anymore.’

William looked at a note that had been written on the first page, it seemed to be a recent addition. He cleared his throat and began to read, ‘The newly-created population certificates must be kept in order, as they help Terrafall manage food and resources effectively and fairly.’ He groaned. ‘Fairly. Yeah, right. It’s all about control.’

He flipped to the back of the book and scanned the index until he found abductions. It had its own section, and again, the ink etched onto the page was much newer than previous entries. He read the paragraph above the first entry. ‘All population certificates in this section have been transferred from the current population count. Each person has been abducted, fate unknown.’ He looked at the final sentence and gulped, before running his finger to the shelf number. ‘Section six, shelf twelve, on the right.’

They ran along the sections, counting as they passed. They stopped at six. William grabbed the iron gates that cut off the section from the rest of the archive. He rattled it but it wouldn’t budge.

‘Why is this the only bit that’s locked up?’

Althea pursed her lips. ‘Do you think this means Terrafall might be trying to keep this stuff out of snooping hands?’

William nodded and pulled out the slice of metal and lock pick. ‘Not going to stop us though.’

Althea beamed. ‘I could’ve tried a good kick, but I suppose your way’s better.’

William placed both pieces of metal into the huge padlock. He wiggled it about for a few seconds, there was a click, and the lock fell to the floor. He quickly pulled off the chain and opened the gate.

Althea gazed at the neatly-kept shelves, standing still, but William ran straight to number twelve, pulling off the first file, eager to get started.

‘Quick, look for anything that might link them.’ He took out the population certificate and read it. ‘This lady worked as a geologist for Terrafall. She was part of the group who were trying to find a way to stop the tremors, just like Dad…’ William dropped the file and took another.

Althea pulled out a folder. ‘This guy worked as a scientist for Terrafall. Missing since June.’

William snatched up the next folder. ‘Francis, he worked at the power plant…’ A few more files confirmed that the abductees all seemed to be connected with Terrafall.

‘I’m not liking where this is going, Will,’ said Althea, shaking her head and placing a file back on the shelf. She pulled off another one. ‘Look, this person worked for Terrafall too, on the food rationing team.’ She put the file back, dragging her hands wearily across her face. ‘I think there’s a definite link forming, and I don’t like it one bit.’