THE EXPERIMENT
The Experiment is my serialised novel, but it’s more than that. It will see me write and publish the first draft of a novel (‘draft zero’) - with no polishing and no eyes on this other than mine, and then yours, of course. This is a daunting prospect, as one of the things I firmly believe about draft zero is that one should write it safe in the knowledge that no one will see it at all. Yet here I am, sharing it with you all!
What follows is a link to all the chapters that have been uploaded so far, followed by Chapter 4.
Do let me know what you think! At the end of this post is an invitation for you to help shape the story as it develops. Enjoy, and keep your eyes open for the next chapter soon. And don’t forget, though the chapters themselves will always be free, paying subscribers will also get all the background and behind-the-scenes posts as the story develops, as well as all my other posts. All that, for less than the price of a cup of coffee a week (even less if you pay for a whole year in advance), and your subscription will help to enable me to continue this project. So please do consider upgrading your subscription.
The story so far…
CHAPTER 5
‘Isaac?’
Not-Frank blinked. Leah grabbed Toni’s arm. ‘We haven’t got time for this now.’
‘Isaac?’
‘We need to get out of here.’
‘What?’
’Do you trust me?’
Toni stared. Fixed to the spot. There were bombs in her head, tiny charges, but they were going off, one by one by one.
Frank was standing in front of her, only it wasn’t Frank. She wanted to run to him. She wanted to hug him, to kiss him, to say she was sorry.
Sorry for what? For killing you.
Except she hadn’t. He was right here, right now. A handful of cheap prosthetics, but that same cute face.
Minus the endearing grin. He just looked pissed off. He looked like he had no idea who she was.
‘Isaac? It’s me. It’s Toni.’ She turned to face Leah. ‘What’s wrong with him?’
But Leah wasn’t looking. Her attention was fixed on the screen.
‘Fuck.’
Where there had been six or seven figures, there was now only one. He was at the door, twisting the handle. Behind him five or six bodies lay on the ground, dark shadows, pools of grey on the black and white screen that could only be blood. He held a gun in his hand.
‘Come on!’
They’d heard no shot, and the escape room was only a little way down the corridor, a short flight of stairs. Two or three flimsy walls were all that separated them, hastily thrown up when the place was converted.
He must’ve had a silencer.
‘We have to get out of here, before he…’
Toni felt Leah yank her to her feet, but she could no more take her eyes of the screen than she could work out what exactly was going on with Isaac-not-Frank.
‘Before he what?’
‘Frank? Help me!’
Isaac grabbed her other arm. His touch was electric, but unfamiliar. Was this Isaac, or not? In the escape room the guy with the gun stood back. He took aim at the door, fired.
Nothing happened, but there’s no way it would withstand a second shot.
He lifted the gun again as Isaac opened the door through which Toni had come and stood back to let first her then Leah go past. He followed, shutting the door firmly behind him. Before he did Toni glanced back, fixed on the screen. The guy with the gun must’ve shot again, and this time it worked. The door swung open, the room was empty save for five or six people — a birthday party, maybe, or celebrating an engagement or reunion — who lay, bleeding out onto the floor.
‘Lock the door,’ said Leah to Issac. She grabbed Toni once more. ‘This way.’
They retraced the route Toni had taken just a few minutes before. Along the walkway, down the rickety metal stairs. Through the door at the bottom. Sixteen-twenty two. Then out onto the street.
‘My bike,’ said Toni. It was still there, lying where she’d left it. Isaac looked at it, then at the two women.
‘You go. Take it. I’ll draw them off.’
‘You’re sure?’ said Leah.
‘Fuck it, yes. Just go!’
They got on the bike as Issac began to run in the opposite direction. Toni in front, Leah riding pillion, sandwiched uncomfortably between her friend and the Stardash box. Toni looked once over her shoulder; the door through which they’d come thudded, as if it were being punched. It held, but a moment later the lock suddenly splintered.
Leah hissed in her ear. ‘Go!’
She gunned the bike and rats scattered from beneath the bins. Toni was unused to the extra weight of her passenger and they wobbled away, almost skidding in the mud. After a moment the wheels caught and they leapt forward jerkily. Leah’s arm slid around her waist.
‘Left,’ she hissed as they approached the junction at the end of the alley. Toni glanced in the mirror. Behind them the guy with the gun had emerged and was raising it.
Instinctively she ducked. The bullet whistled over them, smacked into the wall. She gunned the bike harder as a black car — it looked like a limousine — pulled up at the end of the street.
‘Left!’
She yanked the handlebars, slowing down only a fraction, and took the corner as the limo’s back doors flew open and two or three guys got out. Each had a gun. Each raised it, aiming at the bike.
‘Go!’
Toni’s threw the handlebars first right, then left. Her heart exploded, but the bullets missed. They were on a road now. Slick with rain, yes, but straight and clear. She twisted the throttle once more, as hard as it would go. It was a shitty bike, something she’d found is scrap-yard, but she was good with her hands and it was running as smoothly as it was able. It lurched as more shots — these unsilenced — sang out.
She looked over her shoulder. The guy from the escape room had joined those from the car, and they were getting back in. Preparing to give chase.
Her mind raced as she threw the bike down the main road. What the hell was going on? Where had those guys come from, and who was the guy in the prosthetics who’d look so much like Isaac but couldn’t actually be him. Isaac was dead, after all. And this guy — Frank — hadn’t even recognised the name.
Above all that, pressing more urgently, more terrifying. Why were they being shot at?
‘Down there,’ yelled Leah in her ear. There was an alleyway to the right, and Toni there the bike into it.
People scattered. Two guys who must’ve been in the middle of a drug deal froze in the headlight, stared at the approaching bike.
Leah yelled.
‘Out of the way!’
They jumped, then, but not quite quick enough. The bike clipped one of them, sending him spinning and the bike wobbling towards a wheelie bin. Toni tried to wrest back control, but it happened to quickly. They thudded into the plastic, and the bike threw them, before sliding down the alley, wheels still spinning.
Toni lay. Dazed, but basically okay. Nothing broken, she was sure of that. She wasn’t even in that much pain. A graze on her forearm, perhaps.
A hand grabbed hers. Leah’s.
‘Come on!’
A howl in the distance. A single note, rising and falling. Toni had never heard it before. It sounded like an alarm.
The dealers and junkies scattered.
‘In here!’
There was a doorway. Fire Exit. Leah bundled Toni through and into a kitchen. Lights off, everything dead. Before the door closed behind them Toni heard their pursuers’ car screeching past the top of the street. She couldn’t tell whether it had stopped. She couldn’t’ tell whether they’d seen in which direction they’d gone. She could only hope they had not.
Let me know what you think, and more importantly let me know how you’d like to see the story develop. Any ideas I use will be credited, both here and in the novel (if and when it’s published).
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Does something in the building offer insight into the world this is set in - was it once a school or a 'normal' place that's become derelict, with signs or propaganda that shares what's happened to society - if something indeed has happened? Do they stumble in on a secret meeting, rave, party or group of people they know? Why is a gunman hunting for them and what's the first big reveal?
Again, its good. Hopefully we'll see more soon.
One note: a little confused about the bike. Motorbike or bicycle? You say Toni left the bike laying on the ground (typical for a bicycle), but later that she "gunned" it (typical of a motorbike).
Thanks...