Oculum Echo by Philippa Dowding

Author:Philippa Dowding
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV059000 JUVENILE FICTION / Dystopian JUV029010 JUVENILE FICTION / Science & Nature / Environment JUV001010 JUVENILE FICTION / Action & Adventure / Survival Stories
ISBN: 9781770866669
Publisher: Cormorant Books
Published: 2022-10-02T00:00:00+00:00

Echo1

I stand on top of a pile of garbage.

I look in the direction of the dome, but everything is ruined.

The Oculum4 dome has collapsed.

Guide, what would take down the dome? I ask.

Guide says, I can’t imagine. They were built to stand for a thousand years.

I scan the mess. There is the broken glass of the dome folded upon itself, jagged, sticking up in places, or leaning against some of the buildings that did not fall.

The Oculum4 Senate is still there with dome glass leaning against it. The enormous Oculum4 Arm sticks up from the Senate, but it is broken and snapped in half.

I scan the destruction.

Then slowly, I search for heartbeats in the mighty ruin. I send out my sensitive hearing …

… there are no heartbeats.

I search for decay and dust, but there are no remains of children either.

So no children, then? Where can they be?

Echo1, P1 has sent you video. Do you accept?

Yes, I accept.

Peregrine has sent me a video of a man made of garbage, standing in the rubbish heap. He stands very tall, although not as tall as me, and has words upon his crowned head: KING WILLIAM1.

I tromp over the piles of cars and buses to find King William1.

I find this king standing in the garbage and approach it. I bend and look closely at this false man of rubble. He stands in the wasteland, even after the collapse of the dome. Whoever made him chose a sturdy spot.

Who is King William1?

Or what?

Guide says, There were many kings, thousands. They were a kind of ruler.

But I think I understand: King William1 is a joke, a king of garbage. A king of nothing. But William1 is interesting. A child of Oculum, the first William. Did he build this king to mark his way? And if so, where is the living William1 now?

I cannot know.

I climb down past the king made of rubble and walk through the broken machines, cars, and buses. I take a step onto the glass of the broken dome. I test it. It gives slightly under my weight but holds. If I am careful, this glass pile could hold me.

Or maybe it will not.

Guide says, This isn’t safe. You have to go slowly, Echo1. You could get stuck, or everything could collapse on you. You could die here.

Yes, thank you, Guide, I say. Die? Perhaps. But I live through choice and action, remember? I choose to do this. Peregrine, please fly overhead and show me where to put my feet, I add.

Guide says no more.

So Peregrine flies close to me and sends me video of the way ahead through the destroyed dome. The Oculum4 Senate still stands, holding up pieces of dome around it. Perhaps it holds a clue about the children. I crunch my way through glass toward it. Suddenly, there is movement deep below me, beneath the broken sheets of glass.

I stop and look down.

Far below me, I see a Mother.

She faces a Sentry. Her arm moves slowly back and forth. I can see them clearly through the glass below my feet.

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