Tales from Hereden

Prologue

“It won’t kill us. Not yet. Patience is everything.” – Kai Arden

Tales from Hereden is a new interactive novel that focuses on the adventures of five friends who are travelling to find one person who claims he can solve all their problems. But is this person really who they think he is?

The story starts out in the quiet town of Hereden, which is cut off from the technology and supplies that the big city can provide. With no phones, cars, or even basic healthcare, each member of the party has their own individual struggle. They deal with these in different ways.

The story will be told from a variety of view points, from Kai Arden, the quiet leader, Oscar Barnlow, the nervous wreck, and Alex Blade, the reckless adventurer. The further along the journey they get the more people they’ll meet, and the more they’ll learn about themselves. And each other.

The interactive element of this novel will let you choose where the story will lead, who you’ll meet, and what troubles the group will find along the way!

Wish them well. It’s going to be a long journey.

Chapter 1 – The Summons

They woke up at almost the same time, light brown eyes meeting dark green on a warm summer day in May. The morning bell had just begun to toll across the town of Hereden, and soon the town square would be full. Kai was up in an instant, reaching for his towel and going straight to the bathroom. Alex was left there for a moment, listening to both the bell in the distance and the sound of water hitting their tin bathtub.

It was still dark, so she lit a match and held it carefully, looking around the room. What would she need? Her backpack, with the spare clothes. This had been packed and ready for months. She’d need to get their water bottles, clean them and fill them. Dried fruits and energy bars would have to be enough; it was all they had. She got up and went downstairs to get everything ready.

Kai got out of the shower just five minutes later, his dark curls dripping on the wooden floor. There was no time to clean it properly, so he threw his towel down over the water. He got ready quickly, slipping a wooden bracelet onto his wrist before going downstairs and nodding to Alex as he reached her. The bell was still ringing. As she went up, he checked their bags again. Water, clothes, food, their ID’s. Spare hairbands for her. He would probably need one too; it had been far too long since he had had a haircut. He took one out of the bag and slowly tied up his hair. That, he thought, was definitely needed.

Ten minutes later Alex came back down and gave Kai a quick smile as they took their official Carrier jackets out of the cupboard in the hall. They only ever used these when the town had a city trip, and it had been almost four months since the last one. 

When they stepped outside, the sun was just starting to rise on the horizon. As they put on their helmets and got on their bicycles, Alex checked her black leather watch. Half past five, she thought as much. They were about to leave when Kai glanced at her, stopping her heartbeat for just a fraction of a moment. 

“Do you have the list?”

She nodded, putting on her helmet. The list, with all the supplies that they needed. It was in the back of her diary, and was at least five pages long. 

His voice was gentler now. Irritability had been getting the better of him lately, and he didn’t want to ruin the day so early. “Perfect. That’s perfect.” He glanced at her as she put her helmet on. Her eyes were still a little puffy. He smiled, turning his face away from her, then put his own helmet on. If they were quick, they would be out of the town and at the city gates before nightfall.

They pedalled quickly to the trailer sheds, where the official Carrier meeting point was. Light from the sun reflected off the bicycles that were riding past them, straight to the entrance of town. In front of the trailer sheds was a row of trees, casting shadows on the dry ground. Kai and Alex moved their bikes to the tree with a plaque saying “4B” on it. Around them, the rest of the Carriers were starting to gather around the trees that marked their groups, waiting for everyone in their team to arrive. 

It didn’t take long for the rest of 4B to arrive. The first to join them was Jeremy, a cheerful boy with a mass of auburn curls that fell around his face. His hazel eyes glittered in the sun as he grinned at them, his Carrier jacket tied around his waist. Tina joined them soon afterwards, a gaunt pale girl with a short fringe and thin lips. As always, she didn’t waste her energy on pleasantries.

Unsurprisingly, the last to join them was Oscar. Oscar was a lean blond boy on a bicycle that was dangerously close to being unsafe. Like the rest of 4B, he didn’t have a lot of money, and he came from a family of four. Kai glanced at Oscar’s bicycle, making a mental note to try and do something about it. Perhaps once they got to the city.

Once the group had attached their small trailers to their bicycles, they rode towards the wooden arch at the front of Hereden. Carriers were given priority to leave on city trips, and several of the groups had already left. The rest of the townspeople were getting their IDs checked, to speed up the process later on.

Kai turned to Oscar. “And you have our group list?”

Oscar’s face blanched as he began rummaging around in his backpack. Carriers were responsible for getting supplies for the people who weren’t able to leave town, as well as their own. Oscar was the Collector of the group, who was supposed to go and get the list of the family that they had been assigned to. After a few moments, Oscar triumphantly took the list out of his backpack, and moved it to the front pocket. Kai, satisfied at this, nodded at him and turned back to the town gates. Soon, they would be on their way.

Chapter 2 – The Arrival

It was nearly eleven that night when the group finally reached the city, with tired eyes and sore legs that they could barely stand to walk on. It took another hour after that for the group to get their ID’s checked, the guards looking at them with dismissive eyes, and a further half an hour to find somewhere that would keep them for the night. Kai checked them into three hotel rooms and left the small building to, as he said to Oscar on his way out, ‘get some fresh air’.

“Was the ten hours of fresh air that we just had not enough?” said Oscar, peering into the bottom of his empty glass of water in the hotel room.

“It’s never enough for him, you know that by now,” said Jeremy, cheerfully kicking off his shoes and sitting on the sole chair in the room. He glanced up as Tina walked back into the room from the bathroom, her whole face wet and her eyelashes beaded with tiny drops of water. The group were exhausted, having not made the journey for so long, and Alex couldn’t keep her eyes open at all. The room was too hot for comfort, with the various thuds and shouts from the other guests in the hotel making Oscar jump as Tina scowled at him from the corner of the room. Her face was completely dry by the time Kai returned, locking the door behind him with a small rusty key and staring at the others.

“Why are you all in here? I’m rooming with Oscar.”

Jeremy grinned at him, gesturing for him to sit down on the bed. “Only because I’d kick you too much, right Kai?” 

“You’re over six foot, Jeremy, but I really have no preference. Can someone answer the question?”

Alex looked at him carefully before taking off her round glasses and putting them in her bag. “You told us to wait here for you.” She looked up at him again, the picture of his face a fraction blurrier, and tried not to keep her eyes on him for too long. Because if she did, even with her glasses off, the differences would start becoming a little more noticeable. It was something more than exhaustion, but he refused to talk about it, even when they were alone. 

Tina looked at the two of them, eyes narrowed slightly. “We need to talk about the murders, apparently.”

“I asked you to wait here so I wouldn’t have to go rounding you up from all over the place to give you your keys. I should have done it before I left, I suppose.” There was a tense moment of silence before Kai sat down, finally pulling off his jacket and leaving it by his side. He then looked at Tina directly, lowering his voice a little. “I don’t see what murder has to do with this city trip.”

The murders in Hereden were barely making news these days. Occasionally, it would be a deputy or the assistant of someone vaguely important, but mostly they remained faceless nonentities. Some people got their names posted on the notice boards around town, but most didn’t. The town could move on without one more apple picker, one more shoe maker, or one more friend. Taking a day off for grieving was more or less standard protocol, but after that it was back to business. A town that small couldn’t afford to stop running.

Oscar glanced at Kai warily before speaking up. “Well, you all heard what Alistair said. We have to be careful once we get to the city, that’s all. The centre of the city, anyway.”

Tina frowned at him, her thin lips pressed together. “You don’t seriously still think this has something to do with the Falcons? They have rules and regulations, just like every other damn organisation. They can’t just go around killing people.”

“Well technically no one can just go around killing people, but apparently they do it anyway-“

Alex looked between the two of them. “Do we really need to have this argument again?”

“There is never any need,” said Jeremy with a smile, crossing his ankles, “for arguments.”

“You and Sam argue all the time!” said Oscar.

“No, we have discussions all the time. Mostly about who’s turn it is to cook breakfast, not about who’s the culprit behind the murders.” He paused thoughtfully. “Though we have spoken about that too and I’m with you, Oscar. Those Falcons always seemed a bit weird to me.”

Kai risked a glance over at Alex, then stood up, his voice firm as he scanned the expressions of his four tired friends. “Early start tomorrow. We have supplies to collect. You should all sleep.”

Tina took the hint and immediately left the room, with Jeremy following her soon after, carrying his shoes by the laces. Oscar took a moment longer to get the picture, sitting deep in thought till Alex leaned over and tapped his arm. 

“I need a minute with Kai, can I come get you later?” He looked up at her, a little startled at first, then slowly left the room. 

For one peaceful moment, it was just the two of them and the dull buzz of the light bulb from the bathroom. The room was still too warm, but Jeremy had opened the window. Though they were only on the edge of the city borders, the sound of cars could be heard over the other noises in the hotel, like a radio that was never listened to but never turned off. 

“I can’t tell them.” Kai watched her, trying to focus on nothing more than the sounds of the city, but his mind was throwing images at him from all corners of his memory. His Falcon initiation. His first mission. His last mission, three years ago. And then the same face, over and over again in a thousand different places. 

Alex watched him for a few moments before standing up and going over to him. From this close, he couldn’t block her out. “I think you should. No one said the Falcons are evil.” Her voice softened slightly as she looked at him, seeing the worry still written clearly across his face. “They collect information, not bodies.”

“Not bodies,” he repeated. But the image didn’t leave his mind. “Go get some sleep,” he said, turning away from her and heading to the window. “And don’t leave the hotel room till morning.”