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

by Ryan Mark

  An arrow flew out, speeding towards the car. William held his breath. It flew through the windshield, missing the tyre, and burst through the back window.

  ‘No, no, no!’ screeched Althea, pulling the crossbow back and reloading.

  The jeep hit the bus again, harder this time. Althea was knocked forwards and almost fell into the road, but she’d managed to grab the edge of the door and hung on tightly, the tips of her feet nearly scraping the ground.

  Ori screamed. William held his breath and Ichabod stomped on the brake, his foot almost smashing through the thin metal of the floor. The bus skidded.

  ‘Don’t stop!’ screamed Althea, still hanging onto the edge of the door. She swung herself back into the bus and positioned the crossbow again. ‘I’m still here.’

  Ichabod hit the accelerator and the bus regained speed. William crossed his fingers as Althea pressed the trigger and another arrow was released.

  The world stopped for a split second and then a cloud of smoke filled the road, followed by the sound of churning metal and violent eruptions.

  William looked back. The jeep was upturned in the middle of the road and was on fire, an arrow just visible in the remnants of the wheel. Car chase scenes from lost films flashed before him. He placed his hand over his heart and was sure he saw it jumping off.

  ‘I did it!’ cried Althea, pulling herself into a seat as the door closed.

  Ori ran to her. ‘Don’t do that again Alfie, you silly idiot,’ he said, sobbing into her shoulder.

  ‘We should find somewhere to hide for the night. I need some rest,’ breathed Ichabod. The bus swerved off the road but he quickly pulled it back on. ‘I’m beginning to lose consciousness.’

  Althea rummaged in her bag. ‘I’ve got some aspirin left, you should take it.’ She opened a bottle filled with cloudy liquid and pressed it against his lips.

  ‘You finally trust me?’ The corners of Ichabod’s mouth curled upwards.

  ‘Just drink the aspirin, for goodness’ sake.’ Althea returned the smile. ‘And yeah, I suppose I do.’

  ‘Thanks, Fear,’ said Ichabod, downing the aspirin. His face scrunched. ‘Oh heavens, that tastes awful.’

  ‘Fear?’ said William, eyebrow raised.

  ‘Her new nickname,’ replied Ichabod. ‘She is truly fearless, and so I find it quite fitting.’

  ‘I like it,’ Althea said, smiling.

  They drove on for a couple more miles, eventually stopping and turning into secluded woodland. William looked out at the spindly trees. A few green leaves still hung onto the branches, adding a small amount of colour to the area.

  The sight of green life made things slightly more tolerable, but William knew it was a rarity. The effects of the war combined with Terrafall’s aggressive ways had turned most of the land into an uninhabitable wasteland, all because it wanted to make sure its enemies couldn’t survive out here, where it couldn’t keep an eye on them. William detested Terrafall for this.

  ‘Should we start a fire or something?’ he asked, looking at Ori with concern.

  ‘No, we’ll probably have Peace Enforcers looking for us,’ Althea replied, pulling Ori right into her side. ‘We’ll just have to cope with the cold.’

  ‘I suppose you’re right,’ said William, turning to Ichabod who’d moved to one of the seats and was lying down, grunting as he moved his bad arm into a comfortable position. ‘You OK, Ichabod? I’m guessing the aspirin hasn’t helped much?’

  Ichabod coughed. ‘The aspirin has done as much as it can.’ He paused and stroked his arm. ‘But moments of silence like this bring memories, and they make this physical pain worse. I’ve tried to forget the bad memories, but you can never forget the loss of a child.’

  ‘You had children?’ asked William.

  ‘Yes,’ whispered Ichabod. ‘But they were killed. I was away fighting in the war when they were taken from this world. I curse the day I was called up to fight. I should’ve taken my family and hidden, then maybe my children would still be alive and my wife still by my side.’

  William considered leaving it there, but couldn’t resist asking one last question. ‘What was fighting like? We were taken to some bunkers when the first T-bomb was dropped, and then when it was over we carried on the best we could, pretending it never happened. That’s when Terrafall really started to take over I suppose.’

  ‘You were the lucky ones, but if you must know, it was the quickest and most violent war in history. It was during this time that my leg was injured and I became reliant on the cane,’ Ichabod replied. ‘The most powerful countries wiped themselves out in a matter of months and then everyone else followed. The last I heard from London was that the city had fallen and only small pockets of the government remained. But that government doesn’t matter anymore. People have taken things into their own hands, like Terrafall for example. It rules now.’

  ‘Dad fought for a bit, but he was forced back to the bunkers when it got really bad. He never told me anything, didn’t like to talk about it.’

  ‘I just don’t understand why Terrafall resorted to sacrificing people,’ said Althea, lying on her makeshift bed next to Ori. ‘And to think it started off as a relief organisation for victims affected by natural disasters like volcanoes.’

  ‘As the man said at the power plant, science failed Terrafall, so it’s turned to something else. Something inconceivable,’ explained Ichabod. ‘The collapse of society has made Terrafall go backwards in time, to the days when men believed gods lived among us.’

  ‘My dad was trying to stop the tremors. After his death I got his journal and really hoped I’d find something in it to help figure out how to stop them, but someone destroyed it before I could. The only real answer I got was that the Earth needed time, but that wasn’t what I wanted, because we don’t have time, do we? We could be dead tomorrow,’ said William.

  ‘Yes, time is precious, and we may die tomorrow, but we may not. It’s best to live in the moment,’ Ichabod said. ‘The past is gone, it shattered this planet and left us with the tremors. So let’s not look back – focus on the future, and hope it will be better than this.’

  ‘Do you think they’ll ever stop?’ said Althea, raising her head a little.

  ‘The tremors? Maybe, maybe not, but it won’t be because of sacrifice. Maybe William’s father was onto something with the time theory. He’s right. The Earth needs time to heal.’ Ichabod turned. ‘Now go to sleep, we’ve got a long day ahead.’

  William walked to the back of the bus and lay down on the seat, using his scrunched up jacket as a pillow. Sleep seemed so far away. So much had happened and he really hadn’t had time to make sense of it all. His mind churned with thoughts of the day, and he knew if he didn’t rest soon, they’d make a mess of his brain.

  The air was thick with cold, almost dense enough to be a chilly sleeping bag. He cupped his hands and blew into them.

  Ori and Ichabod seemed to have no problems sleeping, both were out like fire in heavy rain.

  ‘I can’t sleep,’ he whispered, looking across to Althea, her face half covered with dark auburn hair.

  ‘What are you thinking about?’ she asked sleepily.

  What wasn’t he thinking about? ‘Just stuff…’ he decided to say.

  ‘Stuff… sounds interesting,’ replied Althea.

  William hugged his chest, yawning. ‘Where were you when they said we were going to war?’

  ‘At home, watching the news. The news reader said that everyone in Asia was fighting and she started talking about rationing.’ Althea rubbed her eyes. ‘I think you were away that week.’

  William closed his eyes. ‘Yeah, I was at my grandparents, and we were watching that too.’

  ‘Mum locked the doors and we just kept watching. I remember some scientists coming on and talking about fossil fuels or something… then they said people would be shoved into bunkers. The image fizzled out after that and we packed and left home.’

  ‘I remember that bit. Mum and Dad liter
ally dragged me and my grandparents out of the house and into the cars,’ William said.

  ‘The crash…’ whispered Althea, words barely audible.

  William squirmed, feeling his throat tighten. ‘Lots of other people had the same idea that day. Just get out and run to the bunkers. We got past the worst of the traffic, but Grandad didn’t see the truck coming.’ He shuddered.

  Althea breathed out deeply. ‘Things didn’t properly kick off until a month later. Do you remember the first panic, then the calm and then…’ she gulped, ‘…everything seemed to explode?’

  ‘Yep, and we were stuck in the bunkers,’ added William.

  ‘They were horrid. Being underground for two and a half years; I hated it. Do you remember when our dads came back from fighting and started talking about all that science stuff, saying they could create a new food source underground? They were proper geeky about it, weren’t they?’

  ‘Yeah, they were!’ giggled William. ‘And they didn’t even get to start on it!’ He gazed up to the uneven roof, trying to create images out of the dints. ‘Do you think it’ll ever be like before?’

  Althea sighed. ‘No. I really don’t.’

  ‘I think I agree…’ And with that, William bid her goodnight, closed his eyes and attempted the impossible task of emptying his mind.

  Bars of early light shone into the bus, beaming down the central aisle. William stood up and stretched. Pain hit his forehead and then his side, but he ignored it. He stepped down and out of the door, in need of some fresh air before they set off again.

  Walking through the trees, he ran his fingers through the wiry twigs lining his path. So much had changed. The place had become so barren, so dead. He looked up, taking in the blue colour, the only vivid thing he could see. ‘At least the sky can’t fall,’ he told himself, stepping over a stray root. He wasn’t going to fall over this time. His forehead had taken enough of a beating.

  The edge of the small woodland appeared, opening out onto… nothing. William frowned. Where had the land gone? Edging forward slowly, he looked over the lip of the opening.

  The land had been carved out for miles into a deep hollow. Bones and rubble scattered the edges of the crater, and the unmistakable smell of death lingered in the air. William cupped his mouth, fingertips tightening on his cheeks.

  ‘W–what happened?’ William said, fully expecting his words to fall unanswered onto the dusty soil.

  A hand touched his shoulder and William leapt into the air. He turned. Ichabod.

  ‘This was once a city, destroyed by a T-bomb during the war. They called it Carlith and over one hundred thousand people died here. I can feel their souls even now,’ said Ichabod, gripping his cane, hard. ‘This is what war does. Now you can truly see it with your own eyes, see what those terrible weapons are capable of.’

  William felt cold inch down his spine. He couldn’t bear the sight any longer. ‘Let’s go, we have people to save,’ he said, turning away from the horror.

  They drove on after a small breakfast of stale bread, carrots and warm water. It wasn’t exactly a good meal, but it was enough for William. After what he’d seen he was so grateful. He couldn’t imagine what those people had gone through. How many children had lost their parents? How many parents lost their children?

  ‘We’re coming up to the Bad Lands now,’ called Ichabod, pushing harder on the accelerator.

  ‘The place where bandits hide out,’ whispered William to Althea, looking with interest at the wide and empty moorland that filled the landscape to the east. It was a perfect place for an ambush. ‘We’re going to stand out like a single cow in a field…’

  ‘Don’t worry, I’ll get us through, but Fear, get your crossbow ready, we might need it,’ said Ichabod, hands tightening on the wheel.

  They drove on unnoticed, passing ruined farms and villages. Most of the rivers had dried into cracked channels and nothing of any real beauty remained. William watched the scenery as they sped past, merging into a blurry mix of colour. The intangible shapes made a welcome change to the bleak realities they disguised.

  He started to wonder if the environment could ever recover, but guessed it would only be possible if Terrafall stopped its aggressive ways, or just stopped all together. That would benefit everyone. The environment needed time, like his father’s journal had explained, a thing that was so precious to everyone at the moment, especially his mother… He breathed out, fogging up the window.

  The twisty terrain was easy going for a short time, no overly steep patches were on their route, and there weren’t too many sharp corners. William was glad of the reduced impact on his throbbing forehead. It could do with receiving as little shock as possible.

  However, hope was soon dashed when a cloud of dusty smoke mushroomed into the air in the view upfront. William watched as it drew closer. He swallowed with a gulp, fearing the type of people they’d meet out here. No one ventured into the Bad Lands, except for the completely desperate or extremely vicious.

  ‘I think we’ve got trouble,’ William said to Ichabod. He looked at the man, who had sweat dribbling down his forehead. He must’ve been in pain from his arm. ‘Will you be able to control the wheel with one hand and them coming at us?’

  ‘We’ll see soon enough, so I suggest you all hold on. But William, get ready to grab it just in case… We can’t risk another fight, not this far into the Bad Lands, so I’ll try to pass and then outrun them,’ Ichabod said, hand steady.

  The bus sped down the dust track, lurching around the erupted rocks and deep crevasses. William glared out of the window. The cloud of dust was heading straight for them, and as it approached, three motorcycles shot out of it. He knew they must be bandits now, the human remains attached to the handlebars a clear sign. His breath shuddered out as he realised the bandits weren’t giving up their positions.

  ‘It looks like our friends want to play chicken,’ said Ichabod, forehead almost touching the windshield. ‘Hold on even tighter now. Let’s not end up on a bandit’s dinner plate tonight!’

  Althea clambered to the front of the bus. ‘We can take them, they’re on bikes,’ she said. ‘Keep going straight. They won’t stand a chance against us. We can force them off the road!’

  ‘I don’t want to be eaten…’ said Ori from his seat.

  ‘Just stay where you are Ori, we’ll be fine mate,’ said William, giving Ori a thumbs up. ‘Their bikes won’t stand a chance against a bus, so if they have any brains they’ll pull off the road.’

  ‘Precisely,’ said Ichabod, face set in a determined scowl. He looked down at the gear stick. William nodded and shifted it for him.

  William gripped the dashboard as he stared out of the windshield. He couldn’t take his eyes off the approaching collision now. What if the bandits didn’t give in, what if they drove straight into the bus? He bit down on his tight knuckles.

  ‘We have to hope they give up or fall into a crevasse,’ called Ichabod. ‘For their sakes… and ours.’

  Everything seemed to stop for a moment. Only the ash in the road moved, billowing in the road ahead, like a twister spinning on its side, and then huge shudders ricocheted through the bus as the motorcyclists plummeted into a gorge and exploded.

  ‘They chickened out,’ Ori observed, breaking the horrifying atmosphere that had cocooned them.

  The bus sped on, leaving the explosions behind. The countryside was once again silent. William looked out of the back window, frowning. More lives lost. He didn’t like the thought of it.

  ‘I know we’re safe, but th–they might be dead.’

  ‘Just think about it this way; we’ve just saved someone else,’ said Althea pragmatically.

  ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘They would’ve just gone on and killed some other innocent person or people, wouldn’t they? If they weren’t cannibals, they wouldn’t have died. They could’ve chosen to struggle on like the rest of us.’

  William fell silent. If he were given the choice of becoming
a cannibal to survive he wouldn’t do it. Eating a person was just barbaric, like sacrifice.

  ‘Now, let’s go get this Erisia,’ Althea said, and Ichabod gave a grunt of approval.

  ‘What if Terrafall starts to tell people about its new religion? I mean, it didn’t take long for the people who manage Terrafall to go along with Erisia, so what’s to stop others believing?’ said William, gazing off into the oncoming mountains. ‘What if people follow, believe them and start sacrificing too?’

  ‘So Terrafall tells people that human sacrifice will stop the tremors and convinces them it’s the only hope?’ asked Althea. ‘Do you really think it could turn into some kind of replacement religion? Are people that desperate?’

  William nodded. ‘Yeah, I mean, that guy in the power plant was acting like the tremors are gods or something. He might’ve been brainwashed, but he was pretty dedicated to it. He killed himself for them didn’t he? If that’s not dedication, then I don’t know what is. If Terrafall convinced him, why not others?’

  ‘Because it’s too soon,’ said Ichabod frankly, shifting the bus up a narrow pass in the mountains and heading to the west. ‘Terrafall fears people will reject them, and then its whole organisation will fall. It needs a damn good persuasion technique to make people believe that sacrifice is going to stop the tremors.’

  ‘And it never will, because it will never work,’ spat Althea in disgust.

  William settled back into his seat. Their words comforted him, but he was still frightened. Terrafall was the power in this world now, so it’d only be a matter of time before they’d try to make people believe, and if they couldn’t then they’d eventually force them to. He stopped himself. His mind needed to be focused on his mother right now, and once she was safe, preventing the spread of Terrafall would come next. He looked back out of the bus, eyes widening on the masses of green that began to appear outside.

  The narrow pass opened into a pristine valley, stretching far back into the mountains. The ground was no longer patchy and brown, and the trees and bushes were green with life. William was amazed – the place was like the world used to be.