Earthfall by Mark Walden Read Free Book Online Page B

tide. He realised that before long he was going to have to choose who to stay with, who to follow. Instinctively, he wanted to follow his mother, but she was an adult; she would be more able to look after herself. Jess on the other hand was only a couple of years older than him. He couldn’t stand the thought of her suddenly snapping out of this sinister trance somewhere unfamiliar, frightened and alone. He pushed through the crowd towards her, taking her limp, unresponsive hand in his as their mother slowly disappeared from view. Sam had never imagined that it would be possible to be surrounded by this many people and yet still feel so hopelessly alone.
    For the next hour, Sam walked along beside his sister as the ever-growing torrent of people flowed towards their destination. The people surrounding him and Jess were of all ages, shapes and sizes. Some were wearing work uniforms, some were in their nightclothes, a few of them were even naked. Babies or children who were too young to walk were being carried by adults who Sam assumed were their parents but might, for all he knew, just have been the people who were physically closest to them at the time. What was most unnerving was the fact that, just like the adults, none of those children made any sound. Not a single baby was crying.
    After a while it began to rain and Sam trudged along, still holding on to Jess’s hand tightly, feeling cold, wet and miserable. He had been walking for several hours and he was starting to feel thirsty and tired. If any of the people around him felt the same way, they weren’t showing any signs of it. He couldn’t afford to stop, though. He knew that there was no way he’d ever find Jess again in the crowd, even if he only rested for a few minutes. He trudged on wondering how much longer he could keep going. There was still the low-pitched throbbing that had now just become background noise, but there was also a higher-pitched buzzing that seemed to be getting louder all the time.
    Suddenly, three objects flew out from an adjoining street and shot down the road towards them, flying just a few metres above the heads of the crowd. Sam had never seen anything like them; they looked like some kind of flying mechanical jellyfish, with bunches of long dark tentacles writhing below their floating silver bodies. He felt an irritating tingling sensation in his skull and without warning the entranced mass of people all stopped their relentless march in perfect unison. The silver creatures hovered in the air about thirty metres from Sam and Jess. Sam let go of his sister’s hand and stood perfectly still, staring into the distance, hoping that he looked just like the blank-faced people surrounding him. Somehow the same primal instinct that was making the hairs stand up on the back of his neck told him that he did not want to attract their attention. After a few seconds, sections of the crowd began to break away from the main group and head off in different directions. He waited as the crowd dispersed in front of them, barely daring to breathe as the silver creatures floated towards him. A few seconds later Jess turned smartly to her left and he followed suit, walking along behind her as she joined a group that headed down a side street nearby. Sam resisted the urge to look back over his shoulder as they walked away, fearing that the slightest sign of independent thought might be enough to alert the creatures that he was not under the same spell as everyone else.
    They walked for a couple of minutes before arriving at the entrance to a large storage depot. Sam followed behind Jess as she walked inside. Rows and rows of people were lying on their backs, next to each other on the concrete floor of the barn-like structure. They all had their eyes wide open, staring vacantly at the ceiling. Jess and Sam followed along to the end of one of the rows and Sam took his place next to her as she lay down on the cold, hard floor. Sam glanced around as he lay