The Sentient Collector (The Sentient Trilogy Book 1)

by Ian Williams

  “My parent’s farm. It’s a couple of miles outside the city. It’s safe there. At least until this blows over.”

  “Blows over? Look around you. This won’t blow over. It will only get worse,” Elliot snapped. He pulled Ruth closer after having surprised her with the sudden outburst. His shocked expression proved it had been equally as unexpected to him.

  She saw the smoke covered sky above the city and thought the same. It was still worth trying at least. Giving up was something she never seriously considered doing before, and she was not about to start now.

  “If we leave now, we should make it by morning,” she continued. “I won’t lie to you, it will be tough from this point on. But it will be better than fighting for your lives in the city with everyone else. Now, are we going or not?”

  When no-one put up any objections, she pulled Sean along as she began to walk in the opposite direction of the city. She would make sure she did exactly what she had promised to Graham: she would protect his family at all cost. She would have expected no less from him if she were in his position. They would have to set the example and lead. Though after only ten metres or so she was encouraged to see the others had already started to follow behind. Jane carried Alex with Stephen next to her, while Ruth and Elliot walked hand in hand.

  With Sean by her side she walked on with the knowledge that there were too many empty spaces where someone had once been. Her oaf of a brother, Dillon, should have been right next to Sean and trying to trip him up as he always liked to do. Then there was Pete, who had been almost like a third brother. She already missed them terribly.

  Lastly she thought of Graham. He may not have been part of her group, still his missing presence carried some extra weight with it; she had been the last person to speak to him after all. For this she would have to carry his last words with her for the rest of her life, words that should not have been for her at all, but for his wife and daughter. His last request had placed his responsibility upon her, and she had every intention of succeeding.

  So with a heavy heart and a mind close to imploding under the strain, she walked on with the horizon ahead pulling her forward. A steady rhythm took hold of her feet and placed one in front of the other without delay. When they eventually reached her parent’s farm she planned on collapsing into whatever soft surface had been left by those who had ransacked the place so many years before. It was only fitting that she would take the group, now plagued by recent ghosts, to a place she had left her own parents’ ghosts at. Of course she had others to add to that collection now.

  “Are we gonna be OK?” Sean asked her.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, will we be able to survive out here? Like we did before?”

  She stopped for a second to think over her answer. In the past she would have lied to save him and Dillon the worry. Now she was done treating Sean like a child. She decided that honesty would be better from that point on. He was an adult after all.

  “I don’t know, brother… I just don’t know,” she said.

  Honesty sucked.

  Epilogue

  18 months later

  The sun threw its heat and light upon the Solar panel array without any consideration for the poor sap who had been lumbered with cleaning them again. Phoenix had to wipe the sweat from her brow with the side of her arm and dry her hands on her jeans. At the top of the ladder, looking out to the row of panels waiting still to be cleared of dirt and debris, she thought on her choice of cold beverage to sooth her raging body temperature.

  Since the fall of the relay network – and subsequently the entire collapse of the Simova Corporation – the weather had become completely unpredictable. No-one was monitoring or manipulating it at all these days, there just was not the spare power anymore. As such the weather was now prone to long periods of blistering heat during the summer months. Before, the Simova people would have just sent up another batch of cloud creating dispersals into the atmosphere above, in order to filter out the sun and cool the land.

  Phoenix had once thought this just one of the many bad things city people had brought about. She had since changed her mind. At that moment she would have given anything for a bit of cover while climbing about the roof of the single floor farm house. Such things as weather manipulation were unavailable for the time being. Not until the government saw to refilling the gap the loss of Simova had created.

  She plunged the sponge into the bucket of water hanging from her ladder and let the contents run down her face rather than on the solar panel in front of her. It cooled her a little, then soaked into her clothing. With the remains she squeezed as much as she could across the panel to remove a nasty smear of bird shit. The bloody things were always leaving white crap all over their power source.

  With a quick look down Phoenix spotted Alex running around the yard, with her favourite football. She had grown up a lot since the death of her father. Sports rather than toys were important to her now. She had outgrown the dolls and princess dresses – even though she had only just turned seven. During the night before, when Phoenix had heard her crying again, it was clear she had still not quite gotten over losing a parent so suddenly. So any amount of fun she could have after such a huge loss, however small, would do her wonders.

  “Hey, Alex,” Phoenix called from her high perch.

  Alex spun around and eventually spotted her up high. “What are you doing up there, Phoenix?”

  “I’m left cleaning the solar panels again. Can you believe that? I lost a bet to your uncle and now I’m having to do it once again. You’re uncle’s an idiot.”

  The laughter that erupted from Alex sounded like morning birdsong to Phoenix, it felt so comforting and pleasant to be around. But it quickly ended and was replaced by a solemn silence. Alex had something on her mind again. She had become inquisitive of late.

  “Do you think we’ll ever go home?” she asked.

  It was a question that had been asked a lot recently. Even Elliot had brought it up during their unofficial poker night. Eventually, all that had been agreed was that they would talk properly about it the next morning – which they of course had then avoided.

  “I don’t know, little buddy. There’s still a lot of trouble in the city. We could probably go check it out again soon. How’s that?”

  A long pause followed as Alex thought over the very obvious compromise. Except her decision time was unexpectedly cut short when something entered her view. She stared ahead and began to shake. “Who’s that coming?” she said.

  Phoenix had always remained vigilant about unwanted guests and she had only one plan set up to deal with one. So when she turned to see and spotted a lone figure walking up the dirt track path toward the farm, she burst into action. Whoever it was he was not welcome. He needed to turn right around and head back the way he came.

  She began to make her way down the ladder without an ounce of delay. “Go tell your mum we’ve got a visitor.”

  “Who is it?” Alex said.

  “Don’t know, just tell the others for me would ya?”

  Alex ran off toward the larger, two floor farm house, shouting for her mum and Aunty Ruth to come outside. While Phoenix proceeded to let her ladder and bucket fall to the floor with a loud crash.

  She then went straight for the supplies intended only for the protection of her land, just as her parents had done when she was young. This comprised of a hunting shotgun and a carton of ammo. For times such as this she had placed it where it would be easy to grab in an emergency: in a lock box by the front door.

  After kicking the lock off the box and pulling the lid open, she grabbed the shotgun and a handful of shells. Then she loaded a couple and readied the weapon to fire if needed. She raced back over to the front gate, dropping a few spare shells on the ground as she did so, and stood waiting. The second the guy was near enough she intended on firing a warning shot.

  Behind her she could hear the others jumping into action. Alex had been the perfect alarm syste
m. Suddenly she could hear Ruth doing the same action of cocking her shotgun, which she had gotten from another locked box outside.

  “Who is it?” Ruth asked, with Jane following closely behind in a whirlwind of panic.

  “Ruth,” Jane called. “You shouldn’t be out here in your condition. You’re pregnant, for God’s sake. Get back inside and let us deal with it. Elliot will kill me if he finds you out here like this.”

  Ruth turned to face her sister-in-law and frowned. “I’m fine, Jane, don’t worry.”

  Even though she did not want to interrupt, Phoenix had to prevent the upcoming conversation about which one was mothering the other. They had something more immediate to be concerned with for now. “Where’s Elliot?”

  “He doesn’t finish his shift until eleven tonight. He’s setting up another new relay,” Ruth replied.

  “Where’s Sean then?”

  “He went with him,” Jane said.

  “Stephen?”

  “He’s staring at the TV again. I don’t think he’ll be much help.”

  “Great, looks like we’re stuck to cope on our own then. Just stay here. If I need you I’ll call for you, OK?” Phoenix said as she stepped forward. No-one replied, so she began to walk along the path. She kept the man within the aim of her shotgun, with her willingness to shoot well and truly there for all to see. Her message was simple: get off our land!

  But the closer the man got the more she thought she recognised him. Was it Graham, after a year and a half of being gone? Her desire to see this come to be was more of a wish than a real request. So when she could see the man properly she became hugely disappointed. It was no-one she knew at all. Just some young man, looking barely twenty years of age, stumbling along the dirt track.

  She fired off her warning shot directly into the air, which sent a flock of resting birds scattering in all directions. The man stopped suddenly and looked up. She then realised why he had been approaching so slowly: he had a bloodied wound to his abdomen that must have caused him great pain with each step. How had he gotten so far in such a bad condition?

  She lowered her gun and watched him continue toward her. “Stop right there, kid. Who are you? What do you want?”

  Unfortunately he was unable to respond for the time being. He stood still and tried to keep her in the centre of his view. His legs were beginning to wobble now. When it became too much to carry on, he dropped to the floor and landed flat on the ground. His impact kicked up the dirt around him.

  Phoenix ran ahead to get to the man. When she reached him she dropped her shotgun to the side and pulled his head up into her lap. “Jane, get the first aid kit, this guy’s bleeding badly.”

  The man murmured something under his breath. She missed it entirely. “What? Say again.” She saw the dryness of the man’s lips as well as the cuts and bruises on his face. He had been through something bad, possibly only having escaped recently.

  “Phoenix,” the man said.

  She could not breathe all of a sudden. How did he know her name? Who was he? As she fought for another breath she found herself leaning in to hear more.

  “Phoenix,” he said again.

  “Yes, that’s my name. Who are you?”

  “The war is coming.”

  What was he talking about? A war? She fought to understand any of it. He had walked for what must have been days, in the middle of nowhere, and this was his message? Things had been so quiet for the past year and a half that she had lost the art of holding her nerves. This man had run her confidence through the grinder, leaving only pulp behind.

  “A war? A war with who?”

  They had built a life in this place, on this farm. She grew up there and had known exactly how to return it to working order. The solar panels had needed replacing after the first year of re-use, but most other things had still worked enough to get by. Now it was running smoothly, with enough hands available to keep it that way for years to come. This odd message had smashed that future to pieces. If a war was coming, they would be unable to fight it.

  The man had still to finish speaking, it appeared. He pulled her even closer and said something that mentally broke her in two. The man’s words had to be wrong, it was impossible. How could it be so?

  “Phoenix, here, take this quick. We need to stop the bleeding,” Jane said as she took up a position on the other side of the man. She began to unpack a small medical box, emptying the supplies in a pile rather than a neat collection. “Phoenix, quick.” She froze the moment she saw Phoenix’s look. “What?”

  There was no way of preparing Jane for what she was about to say. There was also no way to tell her that would not tear the poor woman up inside. With her eyes refusing to close and a stinging sensation quickly building behind them, she locked her eyes on Jane’s and chose to just say it. “He’s alive,” she said.

  Jane dropped the scissors and bandages she removed from the pile and held her hand to her mouth. “Who,” she said, already starting to cry.

  Again Phoenix did not hold back and said it straight away. “Graham. Graham is still alive!” It sounded crazy, but then she had never heard him fire his pistol before she had left. Maybe he really was still alive. “Where is he?” she asked the man.

  He glared idly at her, then slowly released his held in breath. “The tower,” he said a second before his head fell to the side. He then lost consciousness.

  “No, wake up. Tell us!” Jane screamed as she shook the man’s body. “What does he mean? What tower?”

  Phoenix knew they would have to wait to ask him who he was and what he meant by his answer. Although she already had a fairly good idea of what he had been talking about. Until then they would just have to deal with his wounds.

  If Graham really was still alive, then she knew of just the place to start her search. She owed him her life after all. If there remained a chance, however slim, then she had to at least try. Even though doing so would mean returning to the last place on Earth she wanted to see again – if it was even there anymore.

  She would have to go back to Sanctuary.

  THE END

  ###

  FREE BOOK OFFER!

  Leave a review for this book on Amazon, then email a copy of your review to starman8243@gmail.com to receive BOOK 2 (The Sentient Mimic) for FREE.

  Huge thanks for reading The Sentient Collector!

  Ian Williams

  About the author

  Ian Williams is a Science Fiction writer from the UK. He lives in a small town roughly 50 miles outside of London.

  Although born in Barking, Ian was raised in a town in Essex called Danbury. Until the age of eleven he was an ordinary child with nothing extraordinary or particularly different about him. This changed when he was diagnosed with Becker’s Muscular Dystrophy just before starting secondary school. This condition only affects around 2400 boys in the UK, making it a rather rare one.

  After finishing school and sixth form, Ian went on to a career in the UK Court Service. He spent seven years working there, but had also begun to write as a hobby. When that became his everyday routine he found himself lost in a world of infinite possibilities, never able to accept just one outcome of many. In the end he chose to ride the tide of time and allowed the future to be an unknown space, where only the stories he lives can ever alter that timeline.

  Sorry, I think I lost myself there for a moment. Anyway, Ian is now writing as much as his fingers will allow, or until his keyboard decides to explode from all the typing.

  Other books by Ian Williams

  1. Transitory (released 2014)

  2. The Sentient Collector (released January 2015)

  3. The Sentient Mimic (released September 2015)

  Connect with Me:

  Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/iwilliams235

  View my Author Profile on: Amazon

  Find me on: goodreads