CBD

BLURB

Book One of the Mythos Series

CBD is a futuristic book of two worlds and two times that strangely come together. The main story is set in the 23rd Century in the tiny walled city of CBD built by the powerful CroNulla tribe from the ruins of what had been Sydney's centre. This is Gheera's story, a young female scribe who writes down the words of Yrec the Yarncarrier as he tells his history of the CroNullas. But as Gheera records the blind man's words she wonders about their truth. For she has a set of secret diaries from another time. These are Billi's Diaries, from the mid-21st Century, and they tell a very different story of the past. Gheera sets out on a search for the truth. She becomes tangled in the dirty power-play of the CroNulla world, and is dragged along in a series of events that spin out of control.

For young Gheera, the city of CBD is grey and suffocating. She longs to escape, and partly does so through Billi's diaries. These diaries are written by a farm boy in rough, phonetic script, full of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. But they are alive and exciting, and the more Gheera reads, the more she longs to discover the real world. Her chance comes when she meets a young boy, an illiterate tunnel-dweller who hangs on her every word as she reads the diaries aloud. Gradually an escape plan is hatched. But, as the pair discover, there's more to escaping than just running away.

SAMPLE

From Chapter 1

Gheera stood at the edge of her world, at the northern end of the city wall. This was as far as she could go. No CroNulla aristocrat or court official was permitted to travel beyond the walls of CBD without permission from the Sheboss. Not that they would want to, unless perhaps to visit one of the other CroNulla forts. Within the walls they were safe, they wore beautiful clothes, ate well, and stood a reasonable chance of still being alive each morning.

Beyond the walls was a different world. This was where the AllOrdinaries lived. Workers, common soldiers, tradesmen, merchants, these people were part of CroNulla society but were unable to prove a blood-link with the founding families, those who actually came from the Tunnel after the Silence. Consequently they were not allowed to live in the city itself, but had to settle beyond the walls, amongst the relics of the last civilzation, the one that Nuhklar had destroyed. Some made their homes within the actual ruins themselves, while others had built their dwellings from the scattered leftovers. They were allowed into the city during the day, but at night had to leave and the gates were closed.

The scribe scanned the neat walled city of CBD. She knew it all so well, this tiny oasis of order, too well infact. Uhrul’s temple, the barracks of the Royal Guard, the baths, gymnasium, and the various living complexes. Her eyes passed over the wide avenues, fanning like spokes in a wheel from the quay, the manicured gardens, the quaint cobblestone squares. She saw it all, and was unmoved by its contrived beauty.

Her gaze passed over the wall to the ruins that had once been the central part of Sydney, and instantly she felt that sense of excitement again. This was a place of chaos and decay where twisted steel and concrete skeletons stumbled through humps of rubble. And yet all of this had once been a thriving city, Gheera told herself, vibrant, filled with people for as far as the eye could see, and further. Enormous buildings had stood here, giants that dwarfed anything the CroNullas could build. A golden age, that’s what it had been. And yet now there was nothing.

Why had Nuhklar wiped it all away? The question slipped into Gheera's mind before she had a chance to stop it. She tried to push it out, but it refused to budge. And then, like unwanted guests, other questions turned up. Gheera tried to ignore them, but that was impossible for they shoved themselves at her until in the end she had no choice but to recognise a thought that for ages had lurked in the shadows of her mind. It stepped forward, arms folded, smug. There’s no room here for questions. Gheera tried to turn away from the thought, but it was too fast for her. If it's answers you want, then you’ll have to go elsewhere in search of them.

And as Gheera knew, elsewhere meant one thing. Out there, beyond the walls.

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