Decimation: The Girl Who Survived
Page 33
He took a step closer and handed the writing implement to Rosalind. “Here, take this.”
She reached out and grasped it between her fingers.
“Make sure the tip is sticking out.”
Rosalind’s eyes seemed to move of their own volition. Her gaze pinpointed on the tiny circle of blue ink.
“Now I want you to listen carefully. You’re going to push the pen into your right eye, and you’re going to do it very slowly. You’re only going to stop when I tell you to. Is that understood? By the way, you may scream if you want.”
Rosalind’s hand shook as she moved it closer to her face. “N– N– No”
“Yes, you’re going to do this, Mrs Baxter, I want you to feel what my father felt before he died.”
The tip quivered as it approached her eyeball.
“Do it!” Max yelled.
The point touched. Eyelashes fluttered up and down in a blur of movement.
“Do it!”
Rosalind pushed the tip through the surface of her eye. The tendons in her neck stretched tight. A howl of agony erupted from her mouth. When she had exhausted her breath, she drew in a deep, shuddering lungful of air and screamed again.
Max watched impassively as the pen penetrated millimetre by millimetre, every tiny movement followed by an ear-splitting shriek.
“That’s far enough.”
Rosalind’s trembling fingers relaxed their grip a fraction.
“I could kill you right now, but I want you to suffer. You’re going to wait until the music ends. When that happens you’re going to push it in as far as it will go. In the meantime, you’re going to think about all the terrible things you’ve done in your life. Do you understand?”
Max raised his voice. “Do you understand?”
Blood, snot, and tears mingled together and dribbled down Rosalind’s face. Her breathing came in short pants, each breath accompanied by a moan of torment. Her head moved in an almost imperceptible nod.
“Remember when the music ends, the pen has to go all the way in.”
Her good eye focused on the panel showing the time remaining on the album.
When she forced her gaze upwards again he was gone.
Author’s Notes
Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoyed reading this book. If you did, I would be extremely grateful if you tell your friends and leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads or preferably both. Reviews are especially important for independent authors as they help others to find and enjoy their books.
I would like to express my gratitude to my early reviewers and readers, including Tony C, Tim, Fergus, Brian, Caroline, Juliette and members of my Facebook launch team. Special mentions go to Ross for his continual encouragement and advice (sorry, there are still no pink spaceships in the book!), Alex for her editorial work, Marika for her many useful suggestions, Tony M for the early manuscript mark-up and Sowmya and Mark P for their last minute feedback on ways to improve the story. All the above gave their time freely to help me with this book, and their efforts are greatly appreciated.
Michelle Arzú earned my appreciation for the fantastic cover artwork. I will definitely be going back to her for the next book.
My wife, Judith, and daughter, Emily, also deserve a mention for their patience during the writing process. I think both are heartily sick of our discussions about the Decimation world, but I couldn’t do it without their support. I would also like to thank the members of the Facebook One Stop Fiction Authors Resource Group (OSFARG for short) and in particular Kathryn Bax for the stream of interesting and useful writing advice, including information on how to set up a launch team.
Several of the above told me they would have preferred a particular character to get his/her just desserts (no spoilers just in case you are reading this before finishing the book). I already have some ideas for a sequel and it’s hard to find a good villain. My aim is to conclude the story in a sequel and maybe give him/her the comeuppance he/she deserves! The more people who buy this book, the more likely that is to happen.
Although the story takes place fifteen years in the future, many of the technologies I describe are in development now. Advances in flexible display screens are regularly in the news as are self-driving cars. The problem of how to stop pedestrians or other road users from taking advantage of a computer driver is something I have given a lot of thought to. Using the car’s cameras to identify perpetrators is fairly obvious but is unfortunately easily thwarted. The phone touch screen technology I describe is already available from a company called Ultrahaptics. Smart watches seem to be all the rage but maybe not yet with the capability of detecting a pregnancy. I’m not aware of anybody designing a Marilyn skirt so this one is my gift to the world!
The possibility of a global epidemic is all too real. When combined with the threat of antimicrobial resistance, the future begins to look like a scary place. Fortunately, there are no viruses I know of that cause the symptoms I portray.
If you enjoyed this book you might also like my first novel, The Rage. You can buy it on the Amazon website through this link: http://bookgoodies.com/a/B018EP9MNI
Thanks for reading.
Richard T. Burke
March 2017
To read the author’s blog and to see news of upcoming books, please visit www.rjne.uk or follow him on Twitter @RTBurkeAuthor or Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/RichardTBurkeAuthor).