The Cemetery Children

By Brian Craddock

“The sky lights up from the fire. It’s an unreal moment – only a minute ago gloom and dust made it impossible to see much of anything. It’s not like the polaroid bursts of illumination from gunfire, punching holes in the darkness. This is a prolonged exposure, an aching revelation of the destruction all around us. I want the gloom and impenetrable dust back.”

Jabodetabek, as Jakarta is known in the future, has been besieged by separatists hell-bent on bringing the Old City to its knees. They’ve disrupted utilities by destroying the massive generators on the PLN Areo hydro-pipes, plunging the residents of Pusat-Selatan II into darkness.
For Field Engineer Callan, there are more pressing concerns closer to camp: platoon leader Westerling seems to have lost his mind, taking the men under his command down with him, and Stellum Corps in the heavens above are struggling to keep back the advancing threat of alien attack.
Only Ardiyanti and her pack of wild Cemetery Children seem to have kept their cool in the midst of the horrors and madness of civil war, but for how long can Jabodetabek’s innocents fend off the threats that beset them from all sides?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brian Craddock
• Release date: Nov 16, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463375969

Brian Craddock

Brian Craddock is the author of Eucalyptus Goth (Oscillate Wildly Press, 2017). The Dalziel Files (Broken Puppet Books, 2018) is his first collection of short stories, many of which were originally published in Steve Dillon's Things in the Well anthologies (Between the Tracks, Below the Stairs, Behind the Mask, Beneath the Waves).He is also published in Midian Unmade: Tales of Clive Barker’s Nightbreed (Tor Books, 2015), and Book of the Tribes: a Tribute to Clive Barker's Nightbreed (OzHorrorCon, 2013). His essay on Clive Barker appears in The Body Horror Book (Oscillate Wildly Press, 2017).Brian has also written for the puppet webseries The Hobble & Snitch Show (2015/2016), wherein he directed and performed.In the late 1990s, under the pseudonym Dakanavar, Brian Craddock wrote and illustrated eleven underground comics centred on the Goth subculture in Australia (respectively titled "Crimson: Riot Goth" at 7 issues, "Grave Company", "Caduceus", "Dead/Dead", and "Alida: The Reluctant Goth"), and contributed to several zines and small-press publications.

Book preview

The Cemetery Children

Copyright 2018 Brian Craddock

Published by Brian Craddock at Smashwords

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 enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Even at night, the heat is oppressive.

The sweat runs down our faces, making our trigger fingers slippery. We keep pushing on, because this is Jabodetabek and tropical heat is what it is famous for. The whole of Indonesia is, what with the equator being only some odd four-hundred miles away, but Jabodetabek more so because it is more than a thousand square miles of concrete trapping the heat of the day. In the old days when it was still known as Jakarta it was only one fourth the size, but since then it has been annexed and declared an administrative division with its own central rule, the only city in the world to be declared as such.

A wall of flame billows to our right, fanning heat and light over the squad and momentarily blinding us. Bad fucking spot to be in.

I get into a fast trot, spraying a few rounds of multi-impact ahead of me. They spiral through the screen of dust and smoke. So dense is the smoke it simply closes in the wake of the ammo.

Indirect fire zips past my ears. Duck and roll. Take cover. The shell of a burnt out vehicle will do nicely. Westerling’s yelling for his Circus Battalion to do likewise, spewing a volley towards our hostiles.

Gunnar slams in next to me, locking in a fresh bullpup. He gives me a sour look, says something about how I should have been the first out there.

Why else are you here? he sniffs, then motions for me to cover him.

I think to hell with going up, and simply hold my Adaptive Combat Rifle sideways and let off a pineapple. It shoots out with the distinctive poomp, and a few seconds later there’s an electric discharge blast big enough to rain blood and debris onto our heads. Typically, Gunnar’s off the moment the blast hits instead of waiting the requisite ten seconds for the discharge to dissipate.

I’m hoping this run doesn’t turn into a fucking meat-eater. Pusat-Selatan II is such a ruined district that we’ve been at this all day with no relief. This area is meant to be neutral but we’ve been hitting obstacles every couple of hours. It’s obvious that Westerling has misunderstood both the enemy and the terrain. OBUA’s like this go kinetic quickly, and this one is slipping in that direction real fast.