The Moon Stealers Box Set. Books 1-4 (Fantasy Dystopian Books for Teenagers)

by Tim Flanagan

  One of the first tasks the community worked on was clearing the grassy area in the centre of the compound. The community began planting vegetable seeds as well as wild berry bushes, hazelnut, sweet chestnut and walnut trees. Water collection butts had been attached to the down pipes of the surrounding units to gather rain water for the plants. At the moment the allotment looked like a well tended area of mud, but they knew that sunlight and rainwater would slowly give rise to new life and they waited eagerly for the first shoots of a plant to emerge from the soil.

  Water for the human population was not so easy to come by. Although they had managed to collect a lot of water-bottles from supermarkets and load them into the truck, they needed to think of a sustainable way of capturing and decontaminating water for the future. The water that was coming out from the taps had taken on a rusty appearance and it was agreed that it would be unwise to drink. During one of their foraging trips to the local shops and warehouses, some of the survivors found several large water containers inside an aquatics centre which they connected to the drainpipes to filter rain through several layers of sand and charcoal, before being siphoned off and stored in some of the empty water bottles. A sanitising tablet was added to each bottle just to be safe.

  Although the community worked together and everyone had a role depending on their skills, they were all free to come or go as they pleased. Guards were stationed at the gate to provide some security for the community as well monitor who passed in and out. Some survivors choose not to return. Whatever their reason, no one was forced to stay.

  To keep some form of organisation, every group had a leader who delegated the tasks fairly. Steven had been reluctant to use this sort of structure as it reminded him too much of Coldred's system within the bank, but everything was agreed by discussion and majority voting. Upon reflection, he realised that it was nothing more than a miniature version of what society had been like before the creatures had attacked. Humans needed a purpose and a role in their lives. Some were natural leaders, some were happy to follow. Without a leader or government, society would have crumbled, but it was that organisation and hierarchy that humans needed to survive; without it there would be chaos. There was a difference between Coldred's community and the one establishing itself at Fort Halstead. Coldred still clung to the historical desire for wealth, whilst at Halstead, every single survivor had the greatest wealth they could possibly have - life, and the chance of a future. For how long that would survive, nobody knew. Each successive generation might revert back to materialism and greed as the competition between humans increased. But that was the future. For now they needed to continue growing the community and restoring the basic facilities for life whilst hoping that Beth and her colleagues could successfully reproduce the vaccine.

  Steven had passed the care of Georgia's arm to a survivor who had been a nurse before the creatures attacked. Georgia slowly improved. Her arm continued to heal and the wound was becoming smaller; however, due to the lack of use the muscles had shrunk and become weaker. As there were chunks of flesh in her upper arm that were now missing, she found that, even though the pain was less, she was unable to lift the arm away from her body. It remained limply hanging from her shoulder, despite her hand still functioning. Georgia and the nurse decided it would be sensible to strap the arm to the side of her chest, but leave the forearm and hand free to move and use.

  Steven, Georgia and Tracker knew that the time was approaching when they would leave the community and head for the Isle of Wight to look for Annie and the others. They had slowly been collecting essentials from the well stocked supply room in preparation for their journey. Now that the community was growing and able to sustain itself, it felt like the right time to leave. There was some hesitation and reluctance to go, but they knew that the community would continue to develop, with or without them.

  The next morning, before most of the community had woken, two Range Rovers, one gold and one black, drove out of Fort Halstead. The occupants hoped to return, but didn't truly know if they would. Meanwhile, in the compound allotment, the first green shoot from the tiniest of seeds pushed through the warm soil, eager to grow tall and reach the sky.

  THE END

  1. Ingleton Forest

  The shadows of the thick forest elm trees that bordered the town of Ingleton would normally provide perfect cover for a young wild deer to nuzzle through the decayed leaf mulch in search of food. But this was no longer a safe forest to live in. An uninvited guest that was deadly and relentless had moved in.

  The carpet of leaf and soil was soft beneath the deer’s feet allowing it to tread discreetly from one shaft of darkness to another. Even with its nose down, ploughing a trough through the mulch in its search for fresh roots, grass and stray berries, its large glassy eyes remained alert, watching warily for any movement. The deer’s ears twitched and jerked as it listened to the sounds of the forest.

  If it was to survive, the deer would have to use all of its senses to protect it from the night.

  The last time the deer had foraged in the forest was the night it had first seen the strange black animal. It had been alerted by the unhappy hoot of an owl that had been disturbed from its perch. The deer had watched a black shadow glide above the gaps in the canopy. Although every primal instinct told the deer that it should run, curiosity made it pause and continue to watch. The bat-like shape silently cut through the air, moving effortlessly from one tree canopy to another, only betraying its presence when it landed on a branch that bowed and creaked beneath its weight. The wave of curiosity quickly disappeared as it picked up the raw stench of fear that drifted across the forest floor like a heavy winter fog, chilling everything in a blanket of despair. The deer’s hooves had felt like they were glued to the ground, fear preventing it from moving.

  Then the unknown creatures had landed on the forest floor. She remembered they had lurched across the ground, snapping at each other with every step. They had taken advantage of the forest animal’s confusion, attacking every thing they saw.

  And they were quick.

  Quick to leap onto an unsuspecting rabbit, quick to launch into the sky to snatch a bird as it desperately tried to fly away. And quick to survey the forest and identify prey.

  Eventually instinct, mixed with the metallic scent of blood, had spurred the deer into action. It pulled its heavy legs from the forest floor and began to run. And it ran, faster than it ever knew it was capable. It sprang amongst the hawthorn and ivy, dodged the tree trunks, slid through narrow gaps, then dived into an area of undergrowth that scratched and tore at its fur.

  But, even then it didn’t stop.

  Behind it came the cries of animals that were being unceremoniously slaughtered, mixed together with the excited screams of these new creatures. But then the sound of a deep horn reverberated through the forest.

  The deer stopped running and listened.

  It had heard the call from a stag it recognised. The calling sound of the dominant male of their herd. The deep vibrating sound ended in fragmented breaths and was replaced by an excited chirping noise and a high pitched scream.

  It knew that the male was down. The young deer was alone.

  Over the last week the deer had grown hungrier every day. Fear kept it hidden amongst the bracken in the deepest part of the forest, but hunger had now begun to make it desperate and reckless. Other animals had retreated to the same part of the forest, gathered into one area that reduced their hunting ground and made food all the more scarce. It would only be a matter of time before the shadowy creatures explored the forest and found them.

  One by one, desperation had caused the forest animals to venture out of the undergrowth in search of food. But, the deer had stayed. It waited to see if other deer came, or even the humans, but nothing happened except that the other animals never returned. As the days passed, the need for food grew more desperate. One occasion the deer had left the undergrowth along with some of the other forest animals but the competition for insects an
d tender young leaves was too great and fights quickly broke out. Being a young and immature animal, she withdrew back amongst the undergrowth to safety.

  Tonight it had ventured out into the forest on its own, hunger finally forcing it out of its hiding place. The deer had not seen a black shadow since that first night, but all around it could smell the unfamiliar scent mixed with the harsh smell of blood and decay. As it pushed its velvety nose forward once more it uncovered the half eaten remains of a fox. It jumped nervously back, muscles tensed and ready to retreat back to its hiding place. But the fox wasn’t going to hurt the young deer. The fox couldn’t hurt anything, half the soft flesh from its underbelly was missing, scooped out by a mouth whose teeth had clawed at the flesh and torn it into thin fibres. The deer continued, nuzzling a path around the fox carcass, picking up any berries it came across.

  The night was silent. The lighter parts of the forest where the quantity of trees thinned were the areas the deer avoided the most, preferring to stay close to the trees and the shadows they cast.

  It came across a small clutch of fallen berries that had dropped from a mountain ash tree and quickly began to gather them in its mouth. Unknown to the deer its progress through the forest had been watched. In the tree above, a black shadow weightlessly dropped from a high branch, its leathery wings tucked back, making it more streamlined so that it increased its speed as it fell. The ivory coloured hooks that protruded from its feet began to open out ready to plunge it into the soft flesh of the deer’s neck.

  In a small clearing to the right of the deer a small silvery light began to emerge. Metallic ripples began circling in mid-air, expanding outward as if a large droplet of mercury had landed vertically and disturbed an invisible pool. Once the ripples reached the edge of the pool more would follow until there was a complete disc of silver hanging weightlessly in the air.

  The creature turned to this new light, its descent interrupted.

  The forest was no longer silent. The air filled with a sucking sound followed by a hiss as several humans stumbled through the centre of the disc and landed on the forest floor. The deer had already sprung back into a safer part of the forest, scared away by the light and noise. The black shadow pulled out of its descent. It skimmed across the forest floor, whipping up loose surface leaves that got caught in the downdraft created by the creature's wings. It then skilfully turned and glided in the direction of the new arrivals. Four small humans and two adults were brushing dead leaves from their clothes, unaware of the imminent attack.

  The creature released a guttural rasp as it opened its mouth ready to attack. It darted between the thick birch trees towards the nearest human whose back was exposed and unprotected.

  Scarlet Baxley bent down to brush the leaf mould off her trousers.

  ‘Where are we?’ she asked the other humans.

  ‘Stay down!’ shouted an elderly man that stood beside to her, squinting at a black shadow that seemed to be moving towards them through the darkness.

  Instinctively, Scarlet dropped her body to the ground. Sir Edgar, King Arthur’s immortal knight, swung a white sword gracefully into the air where Scarlet’s head had been moments before. The sword cut through the air, but failed to contact anything. Scarlet twisted on the floor, catching sight of a black shadow that swept up towards the higher branches of a tree to land weightlessly on a branch. The forest began to fill with a high pitched shrill that made them clutch at their ears.

  ‘Come on,’ said Sir Edgar. ‘We need to find shelter.’ He grabbed Scarlet by her coat and lifted her back onto her feet, whilst cautiously watching the shadow in the branches above.

  ‘Is it one of those creatures?’ she asked nervously.

  ‘Yes, and I think it’s calling for assistance.’

  The other children: Peter Crisp, Max Scott and Joe Allen, had jumped through the portal and back to their own world, but hadn’t expected to come under attack straight away. Their world had changed since they had left, and not for the better.

  ‘There is so much death and silence here. The animals hide in fear, the trees are violated and dirty,’ said a lady dressed in a mossy green gown. Lady Flora, the Mother of Nature from the Underworld, rested one of her hands gently against a tree trunk, connecting her mind to the soul of the forest.

  ‘We should move somewhere safer,’ instructed Sir Edgar, eager to move on.

  ‘Wait,’ replied Lady Flora. ‘I feel something else. Movement. There is life.’ She turned to Sir Edgar with a hopeful smile on her face, but that smile quickly faded. ‘We run,’ she added gravely. ‘A swarm of fear and death is heading this way.’

  Edgar needed no further instruction. Behind them the silver disc was receding, but before it disappeared another figure suddenly jumped through and landed heavily on the ground at the human’s feet. In a suck of air the disc vanished and darkness filled the forest once again. The white light that pulsated from Edgar’s sword illuminated the forest in a ghostly glow.

  Instinctively, Sir Edgar swung his sword towards the intruder, not knowing if it was a deadly donestre that had followed them from the Underworld. But the figure was smaller and cloaked in tatty grey fabric. In a swift move, the grey figure lifted a huge sword from beneath his robes and blocked Edgar. The sword was well used, tarnished and chipped with a hook at the end. Edgar recognised it as the weapon of a donestre and instinctively began pulling his sword back ready to attack their pursuer from the Underworld again.

  ‘I am a friend, sir,’ the cloaked man said quickly. Edgar kept his sword raised, ready to attack if needed.

  ‘I mean you no harm,’ continued the cloaked man. ‘I just wanted to get back to my own world.’ The man pulled the hood away from his face. The man’s skin looked old and weathered, his eyes tired.

  ‘I recognise you,’ said Max. ‘You were in the prisoner’s carriage that was travelling the

  Shadow Road. You managed to escape when the Rangers freed us.’ ‘The Grey Man,’ muttered Lady Flora. ‘I thought the stories were just village rumours and hearsay.’

  ‘This world is my home. I have waited a long time to find a way back,’ replied the cloaked figure.

  Sir Edgar lowered his sword, allowing The Grey Man to stand up.

  As if to remind them of the danger that was approaching, the creature in the tree canopy released another scream that ripped painfully through the night air.

  ‘The swarm is getting closer,’ warned Lady Flora. Around them the forest was erupting in sound. It began as a gentle distant hiss of leaves being disturbed, but quickly grew into a torrent of breaking branches mixed with excited chirping and throaty rasps as row upon row of creatures approached at speed, and in overwhelmingly large numbers.

  Together the humans ran.

  It didn’t matter which direction they went, as long as it was away from the approaching storm of creatures eager for food.

  2. The Light of the White Knight

  The black swarm of creatures burst through the trees, splintering branches and pulling them to the ground as they leapt and flew towards their prey. The sound of breaking wood would have been deafening by itself, but it was easily overwhelmed by the throaty scream that erupted from the creature’s mouths. If the humans had time to look around at the hoard of hungry shadows that desperately wanted to feed, they would have seen black leathery skinned creatures that primarily looked the same, but with subtle differences. Some leapt from branch to branch, using the trees to propel themselves forward. They appeared to be longer in body than their brothers who had adapted a stumpy joint in the middle of their wings to use as a crutch to creep along the ground. These walking creatures were wider at the shoulders with more muscle where the skeletal wings joined the body. Other creatures swept gracefully between the narrow gaps of the tree trunks; a leaner more agile version of the same creature that flew quickly towards the prey. Mouths of various sizes and shapes had evolved on the different creatures in the short time they had lived within the forest, each adapted to best suit its hun
ting technique and the prey it fed on.

  The small group of humans ran.

  They ran as fast as their legs would allow. Burning hot breath panted from their tight and tired lungs, forming a white fog in front of their faces as soon as it hit the cold night air.

  The flying creatures took it in turns to swoop down towards the prey, working out which of the humans were the most vulnerable. At the back of the group the shrouded figure of The Grey Man heard a gust of wind approaching from behind as a creature dived down to attack. In a single agile movement, he leapt off the ground and twisted in mid air until he was momentarily facing the wrong direction. He swung the hooked donestre sword round in a wide arc, slicing the creature that had been about to attack cleanly in two. The momentum of his swing continued to twist The Grey Man round until he faced the direction in which he had originally been moving. He landed in a crouched position then leapt forward and continued to run. Ahead of him he could see the silhouette of Edgar and Lady Flora trying desperately to hurry the children on, despite their legs beginning to tire.

  At the sound of movement behind her, Lady Flora span round. She could see The Grey Man running towards her accompanied by several aerial creatures darting around him like trails of black smoke. Behind him was an inky black wave of creatures that screamed and crashed its way forward, enveloping the trees as they came. Lady Flora picked up a fallen branch from the ground and thrust it forcefully into the soft earth of the forest. She then closed her eyes and allowed her mind to connect with the forest and every part of nature that lived among it. In a flash she raced through the minute cells that made up a fungus, a young sapling and an aphid, then moved on to the small erratic brain of a shrew, jumped into the mind of a fox, then a badger, until she was racing through the living cells of the phloem vessels inside a birch tree, charging through the centre of the trunk towards the top. Now that she had connected with the tree, she willed the trunk to move. The Grey Man ducked as a tree trunk swung in a wide arc that slammed into two creatures, knocking them out of the air. Changing her thought path, Lady Flora entered another tree, this time raising its roots high out of the ground creating hoops and knots that protruded from the forest floor. The ground moving creatures tumbled and fell as they became tangled amongst the roots.