Anna Minim and the Conundrum

By Ian Wyche

The electric storm took two weeks to encircle earth. Only children and the elderly survived its wrath. And so it was that the children and grandparents of the world realised they had to look after themselves, alone. Anna joins Tommy on an adventure that takes them a great deal further than they could ever have imagined, deep into the bowels of the earth, away from the reach of the devastating storm above, but into the mystery and danger that lies in wait below. Anna tells her story as the conundrum unfolds: “My torch had gone out but the image stayed, seemingly right in front of me as I stood transfixed in the cave. I could hear Tommy calling my name but I couldn’t shout back. I could do nothing. I felt rigid and totally helpless. It pulled and I followed. I had no choice.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley
• Release date: Jun 20, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463284261

Ian Wyche

Ian Wyche is a successful businessman, author, illustrator and poet. Ian lives in the North West of England with his wife, Gillian, in a house that they designed and built themselves. He has three grown up children and five (at present) grandchildren.

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About the author

Ian Wyche is a successful businessman, author, illustrator and poet. Ian lives in the North West of England with his wife, Gillian, in a house that they designed and built themselves. He has three grown up children and five (at present) grandchildren.

For Amber

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ANNA MINIM AND THE CONUNDRUM

Published by Austin Macauley at Smashwords

Copyright 2108 Ian Wyche

The right of Ian Wyche to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All Rights Reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with the written permission of the publisher, or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is

available from the British Library.

www.austinmacauley.com

ANNA MINIM AND THE CONUNDRUM

ISBN 9781788236362 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781788236379 (Hardback)

ISBN 9781788236386 (E-Book)

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd.

First Published in 2018

AustinMacauley

CGC-33-01, 25 Canada Square

Canary Wharf, London E14 5LQ

Ackonwledgments

‘I am the dreadful menace. The one whose will is done. The haunting chill upon your neck. I am the conundrum.’

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Episode One

Anna’s Invention

The electric storm took two weeks to encircle the globe.

Anna Minim was now twelve.

For her and all the other kids in the world it had been over a year since it had passed.

None of the grown-ups had predicted it and nobody was prepared for its consequences—least of all those same grown-ups.

Anna and kids up to the age of 12 had survived completely unscathed, as had anyone over 55.

But all those between 12 and 54 had been frozen in time—literally.

Wherever they were when the storm passed overhead, whatever they were doing, they just stopped totally, as if in a time warp, held there in aspic, frozen at that very moment.

The kids and their grandparents had been trying everything to revive this lost generation, but nothing worked. Parents, friends, mums, dads, aunties and uncles just stayed fixed in that spot and that position. Nobody moved.

Some of the older ones had suggested that the storm had only affected these people because of the frequency of their heart beat. Some said it was God’s wrath. Others just cried and cried and slumped into a helpless trance. Their parents were there—but they weren’t.

And so it was that the kids and the grandparents of the world started to realise that they had to fend for themselves and shake themselves out of the trance they had slipped into, leaving it to ‘the clever ones’ to try and revive this lost generation.

Without these people they had to do whatever was necessary to survive until, perhaps one day, their parents would come back to them.

In the meantime it was down to these same kids to work with the older generation to survive.

Anna Minim was one such kid, and she had decided months before that she would have to work alongside her granny, Mrs Wikipenny, in keeping them both alive and wait for Anna’s parents to come back to them.

And Anna was a survivor.

Without the means to produce things, these new small families turned to the countryside to live and support themselves. Yes, they lived off the land as best they could and they never dared go near a town—least of all Brokenhead. But the most important thing they all started to do was to recycle everything; nothing was thrown away until the last drop of use was squeezed out of it.

Anna and her Gran were very good at this and had survived the last year quite well.

But during that time a new recycling committee had been set up in the nearby town and the older leaders had put into place, very quickly, a harsh recycling scheme which everyone had to comply with. And the penalties were severe. The RC, as they were known, had established a militia group who enforced their law ruthlessly, and who were already known to use violence to enforce their rules.

And this day, they came knocking on Mrs Wikipenny’s door—and they knocked very loudly.

Mrs Wikipenny answered the loud knock.

Yes. Can I help you? she asked.

We’re from the RC, the large gruff one sputtered out, spitting on the top of Mrs Wikipenny’s head as he spoke.

We ’ave been instructed to check your recycling methodology so as to misinterpret whether or not you are complicit with the new regulatory regulations— the recycling regime voted upon by the RC.

Pardon? said Wikipenny, who knew exactly what he meant but thought she would just make him say it all again.

You knows what we mean, said the smaller man with the ginger moustache and combed-over head of hair. Let’s just ’ave us a look shall we? and pushed past Wikipenny and out into the garden behind.

Anna had seen nothing of this, of course, as she had been down in the garden, in the recycling shed she had built a couple of months back.

This was her pride and joy.

It was built out of tree branches and sundry pieces of planking she had found in the old garden shed. The floor was compacted earth and it had no windows. It stood about three