Suvudu Universe

By Tobias Llewellyn Jones

By Simon Lazzari

Excerpt:

The streets of London lay deserted; the roads cracked from roots worming their way underneath. Moss crept up the walls, living off the meagre light. The streetlights stood grey and lifeless. It would appear that all of humanity had disappeared, upped and left without warning, were it not for the bullet holes that pocked the houses and the broken windows that gaped like mouths with missing teeth. There were crashed cars at intervals along the streets, pushed roughly onto the pavement.

Yet something stirred in the silent city. A London bus rolled down its the misshapen roads. It had been hastily painted black, with grates welded over the windows. Weaving its way through the wrecked cars it slipped through the night like a fish in dark water. Inside the bus it was darker still; a man could hardly see a hand waved in front of his face.

The sergeant squinted at the thin lined paper held in his grimy hand, fresh from spreading dirt on his face to help blend with the dark. Words swam in and out of view as the bus bumped his hand up and down. A shopping list for the nights work. He gazed into the wavering gloom at the pale-faced youth hunched in the seat opposite him. The boy’s knee was trembling, his heel bobbing a few inches off the ground. The sergeant could almost smell the frayed nerves on the bus. He felt a twinge of fear, deep in the pit of his stomach. With a heavy breath, he forced it away, knowing that a clear head would be needed that night.