Armoured

By M.C. Edwards

Armoured is the tale of a 13 year boy named Linus who finds his life forever altered when he wakes from an accident to discover he is now sharing his body with a swarm of tiny sentient robots known as the Xerxes System.

Follow Linus and his best friend Ray Ray as they struggle to come to terms with super powers and the vicious politics of high school. All the while still battling the corrupt forces which are trying reclaim his new robotic companions.

This witty, comic styled, coming of age adventure is set against the stunning backdrop of Australia's North Queensland coast. Armoured is sure to engage even the most reluctant of readers with its unsweetened, pull no punches attitude.

• Language: English
• Publisher: M.C. Edwards
• Release date: Oct 12, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301291595

M.C. Edwards

A kid once asked me, "Why do you like books so much?" I looked around the room like an idiot for a few seconds before mumbling the only thing I could come up with in reply, "Real life is just that little bit too boring." As much as I thought it was a stupid answer at the time, I think that it really does sum up what I love about reading and writing. I like a fantasy or sci-fi world that closely mirrors reality, but with just a tweak of unbelievable to it; a believable delusion if you will. I love reading something crazy that still produces a sliver of possibility on the very peripheral of my mind.I write what I would like to read. If someone else likes it too that is a huge bonus. Most of the things I write are aimed at teens, predominately because I work with kids for a living, but I also write for adults.I am influenced by just about any fantasy and sci-fi stuff. I love to be amazed when I read. Action, adventure and anything which warps my concepts of the world and challenges my perceptions.

Book preview

Armoured

Matt Edwards

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Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012 Matthew Edwards

All rights reserved.

This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

For Charlie

Vocabulary Enhancement

You will read a lot in this book about Linus enhancing his abilities. This book will provide you with a chance to do the same. I have used some words in this book which you may not have seen before. When you come across one which looks like this, you can simply flick to the Vocabulary Enhancement section at the back of the book to see what it means.

I know kids aren’t stupid, you simply haven’t been around as long as adults to hear every word which exists. This is a great opportunity to enhance your vocabulary, or word knowledge. Use some of these new words on your friends and family. See if they know what they mean. You never know, you might stump them and look like a genius.

Enjoy the book!

Chapter 1 - Linus McShae of Oyster Bay

Linus was just a regular 13 year old kid. Regular except for his name that was. Other kids often gave Linus a hard time about his name. He had always wished that there was some interesting story behind it. Like he was named after a famous war hero, or it was a sacred name passed down through his family by warrior ancestors or something. But it wasn’t. His mum and dad had just thought it was an interesting name.

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Be proud of your name Linus McShae. his father would say.

It’s unique.

Unfortunately unique is not a good thing when you are a 13 year old boy. Linus would reply as he reluctantly trudged out the front door for the short journey to school.

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Linus was a gangly mess of limbs. He had long legs and arms and was very awkward looking. He had dusty brown hair which was an untamed mess of waves and ringlets because he hated going to the hairdresser. His lightly freckled face was not odd looking, but was not strikingly handsome either. In actual fact there was one word that could quite aptly describe almost every aspect of Linus.

Mediocre

He was pretty good at everything he tried, but not amazing at anything. He was not a funny looking person, but he was not gorgeous either. He was a smart boy, but was far from being a genius. Linus was well aware of his mediocrity, and was actually quite happy with it. It meant that he was never the centre of attention, and that fit Linus like a speedo. He did hope to do something special one day. Just not yet. It's much, much easier just to blend in during the confused and turbulent years of high school.

Oyster Bay was a quiet town on the coast of northern Queensland. Just like Linus it seemed to have no connection with its name whatsoever. There were no oysters to be found anywhere in the area. He had always wondered where the name could have come from. Once, when he was younger he had even asked his teacher. Her eyes had darted side to side in her head as if she was madly searching for an answer somewhere around the room. Finally she rattled off something about it being discovered by Colonel Oyster and quickly moved on to another topic.

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It was pretty obvious she didn’t know the answer, but he had always appreciated the fact that she had tried to come up with something. Most other adults in the town would get grouchy and act like you were stupid for not knowing the answer, even though it was always clear that they didn’t know either. They just thought kids were dumb enough not to notice.

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Oyster Bay was well known for two things. The first was its beaches and bays. They were beautiful and picturesque places, like the ones you see on post cards. Many tourists and backpackers would come to lie on the beach and swim in the crystal, clear waters. When walking along the beach at the end of the day there was always one or two formerly pale skinned foreigners waddling painfully up the beach sporting a bright red and blistering case of sunburn. The edge of the beach was well shaded with coconut palms, and when you looked in from the cool glistening waters across the warm golden sands, the town really did look like a tropical paradise. Linus often sat in the shade of the palms and watched the ladies in bikinis wandering around the beach.

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Oyster Bay was split into two very separate sections. Paradise (as the people of the town called it) was made up of the four streets closest to the beach. They ran parallel to the coast and were criss-crossed by shorter streets and alleyways making a grid of small blocks.

The southern end of Paradise was made up of expensive cafes, restaurants, souvenir shops and bars for the tourists. All the traffic islands were covered in immaculately manicured tropical gardens, and there were beautiful mosaic artworks of reef creatures set into the footpaths. There was always people scurrying around this precinct because it was where all the motels and hostels were situated. The northern end of Paradise was made up of expensive beach front houses in which Oyster Bay’s elite lived. These houses were monstrous buildings which greedily obstructed the ocean views of the houses behind them.

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Then there was the area that Linus lived in.

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Linus lived further back from the beach, about a 5-10 min push bike ride away through the corridor of woody, scrubby bush land which separated the two parts of town. He lived in an area which was nicknamed Boxton. All the houses in this part of town sat in the looming shadow of the second thing Oyster Bay was known for, The Oyster Bay Institute of Medical Technology.

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It was a drab, mysterious concrete building, in the shape of a perfect cube, which earned it the nickname it had around town, The Box. There was not a splash of colour on it and it was completely surrounded by a huge concrete block fence which was topped with spirals of vicious looking razor wire. There was only one gate in and one gate out, both of which were guarded by armed men in green and brown speckled uniforms.

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Most of the people who lived near Linus worked in The Box and he had played with many of their children when they were all younger, before the politics of high school had been important. He often asked questions about what happened there but he never managed to get anything more than It’s an Army facility. or It’s like a military hospital.

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Asking people who worked there anything about The Box resulted in them quickly finding something else they urgently needed to do. So no one really spoke about it. Except for Linus that was, he was fascinated by it.

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Once, years ago, back when Linus and his best friend Ray Ray first started playing together they even tried to explore the facility.

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The boys had spent well over an hour trekking up the steep scrub covered hill at the back of The Box. They knew of the track because about three quarters of the way up there was a small cave they often played in. They called it their Warrior’s Lair. But on this day they went straight past it, all the way up to the large block fence.

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Linus had then climbed onto Ray Ray’s shoulders and pulled himself up onto the top of the solid, concrete fence. He had squatted on top of the wall staring through the tangle of razor wire which lined the top of it. From that vantage point Linus’ curious, young eyes had made out a group of men and women in long white coats standing around a small rectangular cage in a large grassed area. It was a well manicured lawn which sat between the main building and the road that lined the inside perimeter of the wall.

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Although he had been quite a distance away Linus was pretty sure his squinted, straining eyes had made out a large white rat in the cage on which all the scientists were focused.

What can you see? Ray Ray had called.

Shhhhh! Linus had replied, spinning around to face Ray Ray.

There are people not far away, I’m trying to figure out what they are doing.

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He turned back around to continue with his observation, but his quick rotation had caused him to become a little unbalanced. Linus remembered his body slowly leaning toward the razor wire coils.

Uh oh, this isn’t good. he had thought to himself, as he had madly scrambled for something, anything to steady himself.

But there had been nothing within reach. Down he went.

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Linus simply closed his eyes and braced for the pain which he was no doubt going to experience in the coming seconds. He had felt the sharp barbs of the razor wire digging into his skin as he tumbled helplessly through the wire and he had cringed as he waited for his body to connect with the hard bitumen road which lay beneath. But it never happened.

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Extremely confused Linus opened his eyes to see that the group of people in white coats were staring at him with strange looks on their faces. The expressions were a bizarre mix of alarm and amusement.

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It turned out that the back of his pants had snagged on some of the razor wire as he fell. This left him hanging and bobbing with his feet about 20 cm off the ground like a baby in a bouncy swing. He had kicked and struggled furiously, but was unable to free himself. Ray Ray had done what any seven year old in his position would have done. He ran as fast as he could, leaving Linus for dead. In the end some soldiers had to cut him free.

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As if being seen by the scientists and soldiers hadn’t been embarrassing enough, a picture of Linus dangling from the fence surrounded by soldiers somehow made it onto the front page of the paper the next day. On top of all that, as if things couldn't get any worse, dad had proudly clipped it out and hung it on the fridge for the next three months!

Chapter 2 - AED’s, Ketogenic Diets & Best Friends

Linus was quite familiar with hospitals and medical facilities. He had spent a lot of time in them over the years. Linus suffered from a condition called epilepsy. It meant that from time to time he would suffer from what they called Generalised Tonic-Clonic Seizures. His muscles would tightly contract and then quickly relax causing him to collapse to the floor. They would then tense up very tightly, which made him shake a lot. He never really remembered having them. Linus would just wake up lying on the floor with people standing around him staring.

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When he was young it was very upsetting for him, but as time went by his parents and Doctor Waters managed to work out a program to help manage his condition. He took a tablet every day. These were called Anti-Epileptic Drugs or A.E.D.’s. Linus also had to eat a special diet called a Ketogenic diet. He actually really liked the diet. Linus got to eat lots of foods that he really enjoyed like bacon and eggs for breakfast and cheeseburgers for dinner. Even though he wasn't allowed to eat the buns of the burgers, they were still his favourite because he loved the way the cheese melted onto the meat patty. His mouth watered just thinking about it.

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Although he very rarely had seizures any more Linus was always aware in the back of his mind that stress could trigger one, if he didn’t control it well and keep himself calm that was.

Just relax. dad would say to him.

It’s not that easy dad, school is a stressful place. Linus would reply,

Especially when everyone remembers you as that kid with the broken brain who had the fit on the basketball court.

That was years ago, I am sure everyone has forgotten about it by now. dad would argue.

Huh shows how much you know dad, bullies are like elephants, they never forget anything! Linus would shout as he fled the room desperately trying to end the discussion.

"Oh and your brain isn’t broken Linus. It’s just unique." dad would call, in an attempt to get the last word in on the argument.

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Just over a block down the road which took him to school, Linus pulled up at a single story brick house. It had a lush green lawn and long garden beds full of colourful flowers. He ran up to the front door. There were two wind chimes dangling from the awning which sheltered it from the weather. They were made up of carved coconuts and small chunks of driftwood, all tied together with fishing line. They made a peaceful knocking noise as the gentle remnants of a sea breeze, heavily filtered by the beach front buildings and the corridor of bush land gently licked at them.

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Linus banged loudly on the screen door. A large, ominous shadow appeared in the doorway. It was so big that even the rays of light from inside were struggling to get past it.

Hey Linus, what’s happening? came a deep, booming voice.

Not much Mic, is Ray Ray coming to school today? replied Linus.

Yeah he’s just grabbing his lunch.

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A few seconds later a short kid with a large mop of crazy, curly, black hair appeared backpack in hand. He pushed past Mic and out the screen door.

Let’s roll, he said.

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Ray Ray Tanner was Linus’ best friend, and