The thought of Dad made Bren’s eyes well up. He’d be worried. Again.
Bren pulled his phone from his duffel coat, looked miserably at its cracked screen. Fifty per cent battery, but no signal at all. He was trapped.
But then again: maybe not.
Removing a glove again, Bren reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out a wristwatch. The room’s silence amplified its steady ticking. It sounded like a knife on a chopping board, hacking the moments into seconds.
Squinting in the gloom, Bren studied the watch. Its olive-green face – set within a simple golden bezel – matched its green strap. There was a round gap at the face’s centre, which exposed the cogs working beneath the dial.
Bren watched those golden, ticking hands. Nearly five o’clock.
He curled up on the mattress, put his ear to the watch and closed his eyes.
The ticking went on, lulling him softly. He could feel every tick, every tock, passing through his fingers, travelling up his arms, calming his heart.
Tick.
Tock.
Tick.
Tock.
And then he heard it. The clacking of cogs much larger than the watch’s. He opened his eyes.
A section of carpet tightened, before splitting with a soft tearing sound. It parted to reveal a ring of spinning golden cogs, each one pulling at carpet threads to make the gap even wider.
A circle of polished wooden floor lay exposed by the parting threads. It opened up, like the sliding shutter of a camera lens.
Bright light and birdsong filled the room.
The birdsong of Furthermoor.
Landfill has lived his whole life as a scavenger, running with wooflers, swimming with turtles and feasting on fresh gull. Old Babagoo has always looked after him, on one condition – follow his rules.
Never come looking Outside. Never rise above the Wall. But despite the dangers, Landfill longs to see Outside. And some rules are made to be broken.
OUT NOW!
Darren Simpson lives in Nottingham with his wife and two mischievous boys. After not quite making it as a drummer in a rock band, Darren turned to writing and discovered that it’s a fun way not only to escape reality, but also to explore and confront it in unusual ways. He can usually be found lost in his headphones or eating cake mix with a spoon.
Scavengers was inspired by the sight of a pack of cats fighting over a ham sandwich at the local recycling centre. Honest.
First published in the UK in 2021 by Usborne Publishing Ltd., Usborne House, 83-85 Saffron Hill, London EC1N 8RT, England. www.usborne.com
Usborne Verlag, Usborne Publishing Ltd., Prüfeninger Str. 20, 93049 Regensburg, Deutschland, VK Nr. 17560
Text copyright © Darren Simpson, 2021
The right of Darren Simpson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
Illustration by Matt Saunders © Usborne Publishing Ltd. 2021
The name Usborne and the Balloom logo are Trade Marks of Usborne Publishing Ltd.
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This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogues are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
EPUB: 9781801312653 KINDLE: 9781801312660
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