The Mael by Penny Maez
The summer seemed to last forever. There was the park to play in and the river to sail on. There were trees to climb and ruins to explore. But then, when you were 12 years old, you were taken away to fight the Mael. Huge, monstrous aliens. The most ruthless enemy man has ever faced.
Few soldiers returned alive. Most were killed in battle, or tortured horribly on a distant, hostile world.
Alex knows his duty. He knows he must fight, and scream, and die. For what is one boy’s death, against the survival of a whole species?
THE BRUTAL, BLOODY END OF CHILDHOOD
The Mael is a coming of age adventure story, with thrilling battles, an emerging romance, an edge-of-the-seat escape, and scenes of immense personal courage. It contains monstrous and pitiless aliens, sustained torture, and acts of desperate heroism.
Though it’s set in a future dystopia, these people are certainly not playing games. And neither are they fighting battles from the safety of a virtual reality distance. In The Mael, kids are literally thrown into the jaws of the wolf.
50,000 words : 194 pages
eBook
Amazon search code: B00B93I8DS
Buy at Amazon US : $6.99 (free on Kindle unlimited)
Buy at Amazon UK : £5.99 (free on Kindle unlimited)
Paperback
Amazon search code: 1520909217
Buy at Amazon US : $10.99
Buy at Amazon UK : £9.99
EXCERPT
They were less than half a kilometer from the fight when the Mael ship’s remaining engines failed. It let off a final salvo of missiles from its weapons silos and plummeted toward the river.
The defender ships pumped out intercept drones. All the missiles exploded harmlessly in the air. Then the defenders veered off in formation and shot away downstream.
Turning lazily, the Mael ship plunged into the river. Great wings of water and steam burst up all around it. Parts of the hull beat and skipped across the water, exploding moored boats and ripping chunks out of the balustrade. Cartwheeling, hissing as the water got into its engines, the main hulk crushed itself up against the embankment.
Townspeople were pouring in from all around. Some of them still carried garden shears and rakes for the autumn leaves. The two boys weaved through to the front.
The wreckage was resting on the bank in a heat haze of angry rainbows. Alex stared at the black, crumpled metal. He felt his cheeks burning. It was too hot to get very close.
A hatch blew at the top of the wreck.
The crowd backed away. A three meter tall figure loomed out of the opening. The Mael pilot. It was dressed, as the Mael always were, in a suit of glossy black armor. It didn’t look at all human. Not like a human wearing a space suit. Its four arms were in the wrong place for human shoulders. Its head seemed set too far back.
Nobody knew what a Mael looked like under its armor. Nobody had ever seen one unprotected. It was as impossible to tell what a Mael looked like as it was for a man in a deep sea diving suit.
Alex knew what to expect. He’d seen photos of Mael pilots many times before, in school picture books and in educational films. But this was the first time he’d ever encountered one for real.
He gazed up at the clawing, dying creature. For a moment he thought it was about to remove its helmet, to show its face for the very first time. Its two smaller arms had risen to clutch at its head.
He craned forward. An old man grabbed him by the shoulders and hauled him back.
‘Careful, boy,’ the man said. ‘Watch.’
The Mael pawed at its helmet for a while. Then its arms dropped. It reared still higher into the air.
A blue-white star erupted out of the center of the Mael’s chest. Its entire body seemed to dissolve and disappear.
‘Where did it go?’ Alex asked. ‘Did it transport away?’
The man chuckled. ‘Transport away? No, son, not even the Mael have that kind of technology. It blew itself apart. You’ll find bits of the suit later, if you’re lucky and the birds don’t get them first.’
‘It committed suicide?’
‘Better commit suicide than be captured by your enemy, don’t you think? We’ve never yet caught one alive.’
‘But—’
The man turned away.
‘They always do it,’ he muttered. ‘Just once, I wish we’d get to them first. Just once, I wish we could get our hands on one of them.’
It was clear, in his voice, just what he’d do to a Mael if he ever got his hands on one.
The other onlookers were also beginning to leave. The sirens were dropping back down toward silence, as if exhausted. The old crowd of old men and old women drifted away to their houses and their gardens and their fallen leaves.
Even Tom had stopped grinning.
‘You know what?’ Tom said. ‘They’re cowards. All of them. All the Mael.’
‘What do you mean, cowards?’
‘If I were captured,’ Tom said, ‘I wouldn’t blow myself apart. I’d fight until there was no breath left in my body. I’d fight my way home, if I could.’
He spat at the wreckage.
‘Come on. Let’s go.’
Alex looked up at the jet trails tangled in the sky. He could still see the slowly fading oil smears of the Mael ship’s gravity wake, hanging over the river. He thought of Hannah. He wanted very much to be back in the playground, gazing into her round green eyes.
Would he fight? he wondered. Even if it was useless. Even if he was in the grip of his enemies. Even if there was no way home.
Would he fight? Or would he die, and give them nothing?
He didn’t know the answer. Perhaps he would never need to know. But perhaps he would.
He looked around. Life was returning to normal. The afternoon sun was warm on his face, and the gardens sang with birds.
But downstream, past Tom’s dwindling form, the double helix of Wheel Hub Bridge drew his eyes across the river to the broken towers of the deserted city beyond, the war-gutted ruins of London.
50,000 words : 194 pages
eBook
Amazon search code: B00B93I8DS
Buy at Amazon US : $6.99 (free on Kindle unlimited)
Buy at Amazon UK : £5.99 (free on Kindle unlimited)
Paperback
Amazon search code: 1520909217
Buy at Amazon US : $10.99
Buy at Amazon UK : £9.99
active maas 