Earthfall by Mark Walden Read Free Book Online Page A

number as he’d always been told to do if there was an emergency when his mum or dad weren’t around. The phone rang a dozen times before he heard his aunt’s voice on the other end.
    ‘This is Carol Burton. I’m afraid I’m not available at the moment, but if you’d like to leave your name and number I’ll . . .’
    Sam hung up without leaving a message. There was something seriously wrong and he needed help now . He took a deep breath and dialled 999. He stood listening as the phone rang and rang at the other end. He waited, watching as the second hand on the kitchen clock swept around the dial once, then twice. There was no answer.
    ‘What’s going on?’ Sam whispered to himself.
    Suddenly, there was another burst of the skull-splitting, pulsing screech and Sam dropped the phone, wincing in pain. This time the painful howling was quickly replaced by a lower frequency, a throbbing hum. Sam bent down to pick up the phone before looking over at his mother. He gave an involuntary gasp of shock as she stood up and turned towards him.
    ‘Mum, are you OK?’ he asked. She did not reply, her face still frozen in a neutral, emotionless expression. Moments later she started walking straight towards him.
    ‘What’s the matter?’ he demanded. ‘Why won’t you answer me?’
    She walked past Sam and out of the kitchen, oblivious to his presence. He followed her into the hall and saw Jess walking down the stairs, her eyes empty and distant. His mother opened the front door and walked silently out on to the drive. Sam grabbed Jess’s arm as she passed, but she kept walking, slowly dragging him towards the door. He tried to hold on to her, to stop her somehow from leaving the house, but she pulled relentlessly away from him.
    ‘What are you doing? Where are you going?’ Sam yelled as he finally let her go, and she silently followed their mother through the front door. He chased after them, watching with a growing sense of horror as they walked down the drive and towards the road. This had to have something to do with the low, throbbing sound that seemed to fill the air around him. But if that was true, why had it not affected him in the same way?
    Sam ran ahead of his mother, before turning to face her, his arms stretched wide, trying to block her path. Rather than slow her pace she simply walked round him, as if he were an obstacle to avoid. Sam kept moving, trying to block her path again, but it was a futile effort. Whichever way he moved, his mother just changed direction. Jess walked past and Sam quickly realised that trying to stop both of them would be impossible. He followed them, fear and confusion gnawing at his gut.
    ‘What the hell?’ Sam whispered to himself as he stepped out on to the pavement. Dozens of people were walking down the street, all with the same vacant expression and all heading in the same direction. Sam watched as his mother and sister joined the procession, merging silently with the flow. He followed them, not knowing what else to do. They were being driven somewhere and wherever that was he had to go with them to try to keep them safe and find out what was going on. As he continued down the street, Sam began to realise something else, something deeply disturbing. There were now crowds of people filling the road ahead of them as more people walked out of driveways and side streets, but he still hadn’t seen a single person who seemed to be aware of what was happening.
    ‘Can anyone hear me!’ Sam yelled at the top of his voice, almost screaming. There was no response, just the sound of a huge crowd walking in perfect silence. There was something deeply unsettling about seeing such a mass of people and yet not hearing a single murmur of conversation. There was no laughter, no shouting, nothing. As the crowd got larger, Sam struggled to keep both his mother and his sister in sight. They made no effort to stay together and began to drift apart as more men, women and children joined the