The Moon Stealers and the Quest for the Silver Bough (Book 1)

35. A Message from Afar

Steven stretched his legs as he woke early the next morning. It took him a few seconds to remember what had happened during the night but it soon flooded back to him. He then sat silently listening, waiting for any sign that the creatures were still attacking the house, but apart from the heavy breathing of Georgia and Tracker, the house was silent. Georgia was slumped over the kitchen table, her head resting on top of her arms, whilst Tracker sat on his own in a single armchair in the corner with his shotgun across his knees.

He stood and walked around the kitchen, stopped at a cupboard where he took out some bread and butter, then found some strawberry jam in another cupboard. Standing eating a thick wedge of bread he noticed a small battery operated radio. He turned it on but all he could hear was static crackling from the speaker. Looking round the radio he found the tuning knob and started to rotate it. As he moved it from one piece of static to another, a whistling noise indicated the change in frequency but all he could pick up was the fuzz of static. Steven didn’t think anything of this; after all radios often had difficulty picking up stations in different areas of the country, but then he came across a clearer gap in the static where a voice was coming out of the silence. He had to turn the volume up as loud as it would go to be able to hear it clearly. The voice was deep and rough with an American accent and seemed to almost growl from inside the radio.

‘Last night the human race was attacked. Many people have already died and many others are, we believe, trapped or in hiding. If anyone can hear this message come and join us. We are a small band of survivors in London. Our strength is in numbers and organisation. At the moment we are safe, we have food, water and weapons and our building cannot be penetrated by the aliens. We will continue to broadcast on this frequency for another seven days, after which we will move to another location in an attempt to create a colony of human survivors.’

‘Who’s that?’, asked Georgia as she lifted her head from the kitchen table behind Steven.

‘I found it as I was tuning the radio,’ he replied, part of him feeling uncomfortable as he thought he recognised the voice that was being broadcast. ‘It sounds like the whole country has been under attack from these creatures during the night. A group of survivors is in London trying to bring people together.’

‘We are planning to send out regular scouting parties to find more survivors within the boundaries of London. If anyone hears this broadcast, please make your way to the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square, London. We intend to fight back and create a secure area of the country to live in.’

‘At least we know we’re not alone,’ said Tracker from the armchair. ‘If we’re to survive we had better make our way to London. Like the man on the radio said, there is safety in numbers and I certainly don’t intend to stay here and wait to be eaten by one of the creatures. Let’s pack up as much food and weapons as possible and plan a road trip to London.’

‘The human race needs you. It must survive at any cost….’

The End

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Look out for Book 2, The Moon Stealers and the Queen of the Underworld