The Faceless People: The Mutation Chronicles

By Natalie Rix

For generations, my people have passed on the terrifying tale of The Faceless People. Supposedly beautiful and intelligent beneath their metallic bubbles, but also violent and cruel, they are said to arrive in the middle of the night and drag people away. Those people never return. I always thought they were a myth, told to keep children inside at night.

 

I was wrong.

 

While searching for food out in the contaminated wastelands that is my home, they arrived. They brutally beat my family in front of me, and then they took me away.

 

According to The Faceless People, I'm a freak. I'm inhuman. I'm a hell beast. But if they hate me so much, why are they taking me back to their home?

 

The Faceless People is a thrilling post-apocalyptic tale where myths become a gruesome reality. This short read is one of three stories in The Mutation Chronicles. These stories, while set in the same world, can be read in any order.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Monnath Books
• Release date: Mar 27, 2019
• ISBN: 9781386895305

Book preview

Chapter 1

Ialways thought The Faceless People were a myth told by my people to keep children inside at night. Beautiful and intelligent beneath their metallic bubbles, they are also said to be violent and cruel, taking unsuspecting victims away in the night. I never truly believed this myth until I saw them for myself, beating and dragging my people away. Those taken away never return. I have always lived in constant fear that the same might one day happen to me.

There's one, Peter, I hear a deep male voice say.

I stand still at the sound of the unfamiliar voice. I have just separated from my friends and family. We dispersed across the abandoned terrain in the hunt for some food, perhaps some rats or a small berry bush. Peering through the dusky red dust clouds for the source of the voice, my eyes focus on a humanoid form a few yards away. A sharp wind blows over and clears the dust cloud. It is then I see the reflective surface of the metallic bubble. My mouth hangs open in surprise. The Faceless People... The humanoid stands upright, about six feet tall. Its legs and arms are long but bulky with muscle. It's wearing a dense sort of fabric of the likes I have never seen before. Like the myth goes, it has no face – just a shiny metallic bubble where the head should be. I need to hide right now, but my body has gone numb with fear. My heart hammers in my chest and I feel slick with cold sweat.

Where, Jamie? Another male voice. This voice sounds lighter and more pleasant. The owner of the voice comes into view from behind one of the many derelict buildings. Another humanoid creature. Another metallic bubble. This one is slightly taller and slender than the other.

Two of them? I swallow hard, my tongue catching on the back of my throat. The Faceless People can speak English. How is this possible? Perhaps they have been watching us without us knowing. Perhaps they have been using our libraries that hold the books in which we learned how to read and write. But we would have seen them. This doesn’t make sense.

Over there, you idiot, Jamie says, pointing to my cousin. I was lagging behind, so he must have come back to find me. Panicked, I look around, catching sight of a low, broken wall. I scamper towards it, hurriedly trying to hide myself. My cumbersome feet catch beneath my gangly legs and I try not to trip over on the rubble strewn across the floor. I leap over a mangled piece of metal and scrabble over a mound of bricks. Now half hidden behind the wall, I can see my cousin scrabbling backwards across the dusty floor, also trying to get to cover.

Fucking ugly, ain't they? Jamie says. I wince as he runs up to my cousin and kicks him in the face. There is a loud crack as Jamie’s huge booted foot hits him square in the nose. Blood pours down his face. My cousin wails as he falls backwards to the floor, shaking with pain.

I cry out. My voice sounds strange to my own ears; I sound like a wounded animal.

What the fuck was that? Jamie turns towards me. I duck my head beneath the wall, but it’s too