The Watchers Read Free Page B

and maps, charting places of historical interest in the South of England, maps of Stonehenge, Glastonbury, Avebury…
    A door banged. A sound of muffled voices. He looked at the virtual timer on the screen. He needed to get out of there before they started doing it . The IMS box popped up on the left hand side of the screen where he’d been shooting zombies earlier. ‘I’m so goddamn fed-up,’ Mia Lake wrote.
    He smiled as he pictured her frowning. He typed his reply. ‘ Goddamn now is it? That’s not very English!’
    ‘Who cares? I wish I could live in NY and see you each day.’
    He was shaking his head as the words came up on the screen. ‘Instead you have the English countryside…poor old you.’
    ‘Stoney, have you any idea how boring it is living here, surrounded by bloody trees and goddamn cows? At least you have some excitement.’
    ‘Whoa, there’s that word again,’ he typed . ‘ Honey, you do not want to live here. This city is crazy now. He shook his head as he tapped the keyboard . ‘Everyone else is trying to get out. Including me .’ He stared at the familiar avatar in the corner of the message. It was a photo she’d taken in a passport booth with one of her friends from school. They had their heads together, both popping bubble gum. Mia was the one with the long dark hair, dark brown eyes and pale complexion. Beautiful and so goddamn sexy! He stabbed the keys. ‘Soo…Anything happening over there?
    You mean the Watchers?
    What else!?
    When news of the Angels had begun eighteen months ago, everyone had been scared out of their wits, fearing the end of days. Even now, not many people knew much about them, but the speculation in the media was rife. Some said they were winged alien's trying to take control of the planet for their own gain. Some said they were hell's angels wanting to destroy all that was good on earth, and some said they were figments of our imagination since growing technology had made society lose all sense of reality.
    Tom and Mia had their own theory: that the Watchers had been on the planet for a long time and that they were now emerging to save humanity from itself.
    Mia’s message came through. ‘ I didn’t see them, but I think I may be onto something.’
    ‘No way. What?’
    ‘Fracking!’
    “ Cursing from your lips don’t sound right’ . Tom checked his watch. Five after midnight.
    ‘Fracking! He smiled at the emoticon of a 3D yellow laughing head rolling around his screen . I saw something about it on the BBC news tonight. The power companies want to drill underground and flush gallons of water into veins of natural gas and oil. It’s criminal.
    ‘ I know.’
    ‘When I think of them robbing the earth of its natural recourses, it makes my blood boil. It leaves empty gaps under the land’s surface, causing all sorts of environmental issues.’ Sinkholes, for one.”
    ‘ We get hundreds of Sinkholes in the States.’
    “I know. Pigs, right?’
    ‘So what’s your theory?’
    ‘There's a company working on some land near here, fracking for natural gas. They began two days ago and someone's reported one of the Henge's stones has tilted thirty degrees. They're accusing the fracking company.'
    ‘So…you think the Watchers will turn up to stop the fracking?’
    ‘That’s the theory!’
    Tom puckered his lips and nodded as he typed his response. ‘Go for it, Lakey.’
    She came back immediately. ‘I’ll let you know if anything happens over here, but if not, I’ll IMS you at our usual time tomorrow.’
    “Got it. Stay safe.’
    ‘Gotcha. You be careful too, Stoney,’ she answered.
    ‘Hey, you know me…I'm goddamn, fracking cool!'
    Tom went into Firefox to check the news. It was the only news channel left now, but the government owned it, so it wasn’t always reliable. ‘ The Watchers? Impossible! No such thing, says leading professor… ’
    “Whatever!” Tom barked as he pressed esc.
    He grabbed his backpack from the floor, checked to see his