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  AFTER THE FALL

  THE COMPLETE SERIES

  THE COMMUNE

  THE CITY

  THE COVENANT

  BEFORE THE FALL

  CHARLIE DALTON

  For Mum, Dad and Andrew.

  For always being there.

  THE COMMUNE

  PROLOGUE

  AN ESTIMATED one hundred and fifty million meteorites and asteroids inhabit our solar system. Adrift, aimless.

  They’re made of metal, rock or ice, the left-over remnant debris from the birth of our solar system. Some are as large as dwarf planets, others smaller than your fist. They bump and cajole one another in the protective Oort Cloud playschool, disrupting their eternal slumber.

  Occasionally, one gets knocked hard enough to be ejected from the asteroid nursing ground and toward the centre, toward the distant point of motherly light we refer to as our Sun.

  One hundred and sixty-five million years ago, the Chicxulub asteroid exploded with the force of anywhere between twenty-one and nine hundred billion Hiroshima A-bombs. Most asteroids aren’t of supermassive size. Most are much smaller and bombard the Earth at regular intervals.

  As the largest country in the world, Russia has experienced more than its fair share of meteorites. The most recent recorded event occurred on the fifteenth February 2013. Many more instances go unobserved.

  Not all theories suggest a payload of death. There is also the theory of Pan Spermia whereby life was brought to our young planet just when the conditions became conducive to life. Another planet, far from our world, could have been destroyed, its debris cast into the universe, a billion pieces of cosmic lint flung into the extremities of space. We may, in essence, all of us, be aliens.

  Meteorites may have seeded us with life. It’s therefore a peculiar twist of fate it was by meteorites that we were almost wiped out.

  Yet not in the way anyone might have ever suspected.

  1.

  THE DESERT was silent and calm, the way Jimmy had always known it. The only noise came from the gentle rattling of the goats’ bells around their necks and their soft mehing of content.

  Jimmy could already feel himself beginning to drift off to the land of Nod. His head would fall in the middle of his dinner plate. His mother would not be pleased.

  Jimmy, eight years old and small for his age, turned in his deckchair to look at Billy the Kid—the billy goat that’d been born just a few months ago—but was already the boy’s favorite pet.

  The family didn’t keep a dog, no matter how much Jimmy argued for its case. “But he could run and catch rabbits! Could keep an eye out for Rages!”

  But his parents were adamant. No dogs.

  Jimmy glanced at his parents. They were discussing something. How to grow or find more food, probably. It was the subject that dominated most of their conversations these days.

  Jimmy tucked some of the lettuce in his pocket—a weak, pathetic excuse for a lettuce leaf that had no place on a dinner plate, full of holes from the caterpillar infestation they’d suffered during the last cycle. It was all they had, and they were thankful for it.

  Jimmy finished up the last of his beans, spooning them into his mouth as fast as he could.

  “Done,” he said.

  “Wash your plate up in the sink,” his mother said.

  She sat with Jimmy’s only sibling in her lap, a pink cretin of six months. When he’d come, he’d taken every last morsel of time that had previously been his. And to think, he’d originally been excited at the prospect of a new little baby brother or sister.

  Another disappointment.

  Never mind. Jimmy had many other siblings. Billy the Kid was only the most recent addition. Jimmy was close to animals. Perhaps too close.

  His first animal friend, Percy, was a pig with a black spot on his left ear. He’d have been close to ten years old by now if the boy’s parents hadn’t been so hungry. They’d held off for as long as they could, stripping the bark off the trees and consuming every edible flower and plant within a five-mile radius, but eventually, they had no food for themselves, never mind the pig. They couldn’t even give the pig their poo any longer.

  No food, no poo.

  They’d slaughtered the starving little piglet. There had been precious little meat on his bones, but his mother was nothing if not creative, and made the little body last two weeks before they became crazy with hunger again.

  Finally, the drought ended and the rain fell. Jimmy had danced in the heavy shower along with his parents. The plants grew back faster after that.

  Jimmy washed his plate in the water that had sat there all week. He didn’t think it was much good cleaning it in dirty water, but he washed it anyway and slid it into the dish rack his father had made out of twigs from the elder bush at the back of their home.

  Before the Fall, Jimmy’s father had been something called a lawyer. No matter how many times his father explained the concept to him, Jimmy couldn’t understand what a lawyer actually did.

  There wasn’t much work for lawyers these days. Or for the past twenty years. The Fall had changed everything.

  There was a time when Jimmy’s father couldn’t do DIY, but over the years his skills had improved and he knew which end of the hammer to use.

  That was his father’s expression. Which end of the hammer to use. Jimmy didn’t understand that, as it was obvious to him which end should be used.

  Jimmy moved around their home, constructed predominantly out of refuse discarded by people of some forgotten civilization. He approached the small enclosure around the back.

  It was sturdy and well-made, built to withstand the dust storms that often plagued them during the summer months. Another testimony to his father’s skill with hammer and nail.

  Billy the Kid stood, knock-kneed, head bowed to peer up from under the gate’s rungs the way he used to when he was smaller.

  Jimmy wondered if he knew how much cuter he looked this way, making it even more likely he’d get a treat. Or did he do it by accident? It made no difference to Jimmy. Billy was getting his treat, no matter what.

  Jimmy reached into his pocket and took the flimsy flap of yellow lettuce out. The goat sniffed it. Not with relish. He reached out with his tongue. The leaf stuck to his taste buds. He sucked it in his mouth and made loud slapping noises as he chewed.

  “Sorry, Billy,” Jimmy said. “It’s the best I could do today. I’ll try harder next time.”

  Billy munched quite happily. Goats even ate paper, so the lettuce leaf, no matter how limp and faded it was, had to be better than that.

  Billy’s eyes were a gray-blue hue and stared in both directions, keeping a lookout. His mother said his eyes looked sinister but Jimmy thought they made Billy look confused, in need of protection. Jimmy was only too willing to provide it.

  He patted the goat on his bony head and looked up at the sky. The stars shone brightly the way they always did when the temperature began to fall, blinking like cold distant gods. Gorgeous against the desert white and velvet blue of the cool night sky.

  The craggy mountains were a mile or so distant, unflinching against the heavy press of the stars. Some nights, they were so vivid he could make out the swell of the Milky Way.

  One of the stars flickered. Probably a satellite, Jimmy thought. Occasionally they passed overhead, useless now, empty metal shells from before the Fall. An everlasting remnant of their once illustrious past.

  Jimmy lik
ed seeing them. A reminder of the way things could be. One day. Perhaps he might even live to see it. But he doubted it. There needed to be signs of progress, of things getting better, his father said. And they had seen blessed little of that for the past decade.

  A flash of light surrounded the satellite, glowing brighter around the undercarriage. That was strange. There was usually a blinking green light on the satellite, not an explosion of yellow-orange like this.

  It moved faster than a satellite, growing larger as Jimmy watched it. It was coming toward their little camp, fast.

  Jimmy ran and shouted, but by the time he rounded the shack, they were bathed with intense bright light. Jimmy’s cries were lost to the object’s roar as it sailed overhead.

  The world bleached white, a powerful blast of air knocking Jimmy to the ground.

  The fire swirled, rose, and then doubted immediately like a giant had blown it out. The air rippled, spraying dust outwards and curling back in on itself, forming a tunnel.

  A heavy thud in the distance.

  The animals mehed and screamed, kicking and beating at their prison. Jimmy and his father secured the gate, ensuring the animals couldn’t escape.

  A wall of dust rose, blocking the stars as if reaching up to knock them from the sky. Then it began to settle back down to earth.

  “What was that?” Mom said.

  “I don’t know,” Dad said. “Another meteorite?”

  “Probably best to stay away from it,” Mom said. “Just in case.”

  “It wasn’t glowing green,” Jimmy said. “Didn’t all the other meteorites glow green? This one just crashed. Maybe it’s not a meteorite. It could be like those flying metal things you told me about. The. . .” He struggled with the unfamiliar word. “Helicopter. Or. . . airplane.”

  Mom rocked the forgotten baby in her arms. It screamed and wailed. None of them took any notice.

  “Jimmy could be right,” Mom said. “What if it’s a plane? Someone might need help.”

  “You want me to check it out?” Dad said.

  “Just in case,” Mom said. “It might be an airdrop, something we can use. God knows we need more medicine.”

  “All right,” Dad said. “Let me put my boots on.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Jimmy said. He always liked to join his father on his adventures.

  “Fine,” Dad said. “But the goat stays here. We don’t want anything we can’t control. Besides, he’s probably still munching on the lettuce leaf you gave him.”

  Jimmy’s eyes grew wide and he flushed red. He thought he’d gotten away with it.

  ◆◆◆

  DAD HELD Smokey’s reins as they crossed the desert. The mountains rose higher with each step. An owl hooted and screeched overhead. Jimmy eyed the darkness uncertainly. He was afraid but didn’t want to look like it. He kept close to his father.

  “Don’t worry,” Dad said. “There’s nothing out here that can hurt us.”

  They both knew the falseness of that statement. There were all manner of animals that lurked deep under the sand and circled high overhead that wanted to gnaw on their bones. And that wasn’t even mentioning the man-shaped horrors in the world.

  Thick bolts of devil grass poked out of the ground, snagging Jimmy’s foot. The world was carpeted with curled silver shadows that stretched over the valley floor.

  “Woah,” Dad said.

  They stood on the lip of a crater, peering down into the huge newly-formed indent of the earth as if Thor had slammed his hammer into it.

  In the middle, pressed up against the mountain and having taken a chunk out of its base, was a lump of rock. The flowers of half a dozen spindly trees were alight, flames flickering and burning out.

  “Well, I’ll be,” Dad said, pushing up the brim of his hat with his thumb. “Would you look at that.”

  Despite the incredible show of natural power, Dad’s attention was taken with something else. He caught Jimmy looking and spun him around so he faced the opposite direction.

  “You, uh, look over that way,” he said.

  Jimmy was just as mesmerized, even if he couldn’t quite understand why. He glanced over his shoulder at the figure standing ten feet from the asteroid.

  She was naked, wearing not a stitch on her gorgeous body. She was tall with dark raven hair, toned and strong. Her head moved left to right, taking in her surroundings.

  Dad wet his thumb and forefinger and pressed his eyebrows down. He clucked out the corner of his mouth and led Smokey forward. Jimmy had to run to catch up.

  The woman couldn’t have missed them approaching but seemed more interested in the crater. There was something odd with the way she moved, Jimmy thought. Her face was devoid of emotion, flat and lifeless. She didn’t move her eyes, only her head, to peer where she wanted to see.

  Jimmy tugged on his father’s hand.

  “Dad, let’s go,” he said.

  “That’s a woman in need, son,” Dad said. “I’m sure I taught you better manners than that.”

  Jimmy checked the woman again. She wasn’t so big, he supposed. His father was a good four inches taller than her, his arms thick and muscular. He could easily take her.

  Smokey stopped twenty yards from the asteroid and stepped side to side, skittish. Dad handed the reins to Jimmy.

  “Hello there, Miss,” he said, taking a step closer. “There’s no need to be afraid. We don’t mean you any harm. You’re mighty lucky to have been missed by the asteroid. Although it seems to have left you a little, uh, exposed.”

  He shrugged off his jacket and offered it to the woman. For the first time, the woman acknowledged his existence. She considered the jacket with the same lifeless expression.

  “Or I can put it on you if that’s all right?” Dad said.

  He stepped slowly—deliberately—toward her, and draped his jacket over her shoulders. She didn’t zip it up or try to conceal her nakedness.

  “You must have been close for it to have blown your clothes off,” Dad said. “Perhaps you’re in shock. Sit down. You need to rest.”

  “Give me your clothes,” the woman said.

  “Sure, I can give you my shirt,” Dad said, unbuttoning it.

  “Give me your clothes,” the woman said again.

  No inflection, no wavering of the voice. Pronounced exactly the same way as she had the first time. Dad turned to Jimmy.

  “Give her your pants,” Dad said.

  “Why?” Jimmy said.

  “Share the load, son,” Dad said.

  Now he was closer, Jimmy could see it wasn’t an asteroid at all. There was a square hole in the side like a door. The moonlight shifted ever so slightly, revealing a large egg-shaped capsule.

  Jimmy wondered if it was one of those airplanes or helicopters his parents told him about. It looked a whole lot different from the descriptions his father had told him.

  “Give me your clothes,” the woman said again.

  “We’re going to,” Dad said, a little agitated this time. He could have a fierce temper when he got riled up.

  Jimmy began unbuttoning his pants when the woman stepped forward. She wrapped her hand around his father’s neck, her movements smooth and fast. She raised him off his feet.

  “Dad!” Jimmy said.

  His father barely managed to squeeze out a croak before the woman twisted her hand sharply to one side, making a loud crack noise.

  Dad’s body went limp. With her free hand, the woman pulled his pants off and tossed his body aside. The woman put the pants on.

  “Dad!” Jimmy said, rushing to his father’s side. “Dad!”

  His father stared at the night sky, unblinking.

  Jimmy didn’t know what to do. He touched his father’s face and shook him gently to wake him up. He didn’t stir even when the woman bent down to pick up his father’s fallen hat.

  “Where is the girl?” the woman said.

  Jimmy focused on his father, tears streaming down his face.

  “Where is the girl?”
the woman said again, taking a sinister step forward.

  Recognizing his immediate danger, Jimmy focused.

  “The girl?” he said. “What girl?”

  “Where is the girl?” the woman repeated.

  “That way,” Jimmy said, pointing. Guessing randomly. “That way.”

  He pointed east. The woman took Smokey by the reins and led him away.

  “Wait,” Jimmy said. “How am I going to get my father home?”

  The woman didn’t answer. Didn’t even so much as hint she’d heard him.

  Jimmy put his fingers to his father’s neck and felt for a pulse. He had none.

  Jimmy held on to his father’s lifeless body and cried as the woman scaled the crater and headed east.

  2.

  ANGIE’S FACE was grizzled and old, with so many wrinkles she looked like the practice model the Creator used before he got the design right. Her irises were big, circular and black, red in the corners due to her age. Noble but sad. It was a face Jamie would never forget.

  Angie had to go up on tiptoes to wrap her arms around Jamie’s neck. He remembered a time not so long ago when it had been the other way around.

  Then Angie turned to Jamie’s older brother Donny. He hated his original name, Donald. Jamie only used it when he wanted to annoy him.

  Donny’s appearance was everything Jamie was not. Five years Jamie’s senior, Donny was tall and broad-chested and could have been the star quarterback in a national team if the sands hadn’t shifted beneath the world’s feet. He had to duck down to hug sweet Angie.

  Then Angie hugged their father, Donald. He also sported big broad masculine features, though Donny couldn’t yet manage the impressive beard of his father.

  Donald wore a sad smile. He could have stopped what was about to happen at any time, but he wouldn’t. His demeanour was one of grim resolution.

  As Angie hugged him, her knee-length skirt rode up, exposing the dark bruise-like marks on the back of her legs. She had more on her hands and arms.