This is the first chapter of a dystopian story for 8-12 age range. It won a first prize at the Winchester Festival’s “First Chapter” competition. It languished for a long time because I decided to expand it and didn’t really get round to it. I’ve now decided to leave it at the original length and revise it instead. I entered the chapters in an internal competition for my local writing group, and it was not well received. This explains how so many books make a circuit round publishers and agents. Responses are so individual – ‘one man’s meat is another man’s poison.’

Chapter 1

The Finding

It was hot and dry. It was always hot and dry. The land around them was flat. Heaps of rubble jutted out of the dust. The landscape did not change. The hot grey earth, the rubble, craters and occasional heaps of gray or white stones and rocks were all that existed.

Except for the rubbish of course. The great ditches of rubbish rotted and seethed around them under the blazing sun. The buzz and hum of flies and the moving and twitching of maggot-full debris was the only sign of life. That was all there was, except when they looked behind them.

In the distance, the Barrier towered above them, a great encirclement, gray, windowless and impenetrable. They avoided looking at it when they could. It was bad luck.

Ked carefully combed through his pile. He had found two food tubes, hardly touched, and a box with enough tablets to last them a few days. A good afternoon’s work. He glanced back to check his brother was safe. Emin was still small, wiry but malnourished and had just reached his tenth year. His slight figure was preoccupied, scratching at a group of stones in the distance. Relieved, Ked returned to sifting through his own heap of rubbish.

There was a shriek of excitement.

He turned sharply to see his brother grinning, shouting and waving at him. He dropped what he was holding and ran towards him. “Look, look,” yelled Emin, “I found something special.”

Ked looked at what his brother was holding. Then hit him hard on the side of his head, knocking him to the ground. He stood over him, arms akimbo, glaring. Then he seized the object held in his brother’s outstretched hand. With a look of disgust, he threw it hard towards the seething pit next to them.

“I told you not to waste my time,” he shouted. He paced up and down, aiming occasional kicks at his wailing, squirming brother. “I told you not to waste my time you stupid, stupid”, another kick, “idiot.”

As he shouted, his eyes skimmed past the piles of rubbish. His bare foot nudged something into a hole under a pile of stones. He grabbed his brother’s arm, dragging him, still wailing, away from the ruins and towards an open area of ground. When he found a crater big enough, he crouched inside it, dragging his brother after him. Emin was still whimpering and rubbing his face and head. His eye was beginning to swell.

The boys sat in silence broken only by sniffles from Emin. After a while Ked asked,“Does it hurt?”

“Yes.”

“Serves you right.”

“It was something good.”

“Yes.”

“You hit me?”

“You should’ve kept your mouth shut.”

“There was no-one there!”

“There’s always someone…” Ked heard a stone move. It was still a way off. “Shut up! Curl up, pretend to be crying” he whispered urgently. Emin closed his eyes, leaned against the earthen wall, dropped his head and simulated muffled sobs. Ked whittled a stick with his small, sharp side knife.

Seconds later Ked felt a shadow over him and peered up, cautiously. A squat, swarthy man stood above them, another man, tall and lean with pale alert eyes alongside him. Both held sticks, the smaller of the two fingered a large knife strapped to his side.

“Wotcha find then, Ked?” asked the swarthy man.

“Nothing! “said Ked. He realised with dismay that he’d abandoned his own findings when Emin shouted for him. ” “Pickings were good until this little fool called me. He made me drop my stuff – thought he’d found something good. Left my stuff behind, all ‘cos of him. I’ll go back for it later when it’s not so hot – kids eh! Thought we’d get out of the sun for a bit, reckon the heat’s getting to his brain. He’s a flaming liability.” He knew he was talking too much but couldn’t help himself. A predatory gleam had appeared in the eye of the questioner.

“Yea, don’t bother – we already got your stuff… just wondering what was so good that you decided to dump it?”

“Sod all. Stupid kid – found a bit of old glass – reckoned it was special for some reason. He’s always doing it, I chucked it – fed up with him.” He pulled a face and raised a fist at his cowering brother. At the same time his other hand moved to the hilt of the knife he’d tucked in his belt. His voice was hoarse with feigned indignation,”He made such a row; I thought we’d struck lucky. Stupid kid – just another bit of rubbish. Just more rubbish – I slung it in the pit. Stupid kid,” he glared again at his brother who was cowering away from him. “That’s a whole day’s findings he’s cost me now. Still he won’t do it again. I taught him a lesson.”

On cue, Emin raised his

a swollen tear stained face to the men and began blubbering. “I suppose,“ said Ked tentatively, “you wouldn’t chuck down a couple of the tablets I found would you? That stuff was all I’d got today.”

The answer was a shower of earth and stones kicked down on top of them.

They sat in silence until the men’s’ voices faded into murmurs in the distance. It began to get dark. Emin’s voice was quiet and puzzled. He’d picked up a heavy stone while he’d been cowering on the other side of the hole. Now the men had gone, he dropped it onto the ground. ” What was it Ked? It was a good find wasn’t it? What was it?”

“I’m not sure. I think it’s a book.”

“Is that good?”

“It might be, or it could get us killed.”

“Anything could get us killed. What do we do with it?”

“Find it again without being seen and put it somewhere safe. Then we need to find a Reader “

“What’s that?”

“Someone who can work out what the lines on it mean. Readers are the only people who are allowed to have books or read them.”

“What’s read?”

“Understanding secrets.”