The Tube Riders first teaser snippet

Well, it's time to get the promotion ball rolling, so here is your first teaser snippet from my forthcoming novel, The Tube Riders, a sci-fi epic set in near-future dystopian Britain.

The Tube Riders
Chris Ward

Chapter One – Breakfall (excerpt)

The roar in the tunnel grew louder.

The noise came from far back in the dark, building from a low, distant rumble into a rolling, thundering crescendo like a thousand hurricanes colliding, tearing each other apart. Marta, squatting in a sprinter's crouch, closed her eyes as she always did, concentrating, seeing in her mind something monstrous, untamed. She let out a slow breath, looped her wrists through the leather safety straps and closed her fingers over the cold metal handles of the wooden clawboard.

Bring it on.

She smelt engine oil, heard the hum of the vibrating rails on the track below. She grimaced and shifted her wrists as the straps rubbed against the old marks on her skin.

Seconds, just seconds . . .

Come on. I’m waiting.

The roar was almost deafening now. Marta’s eyes flicked open, her concentration sharp. Muscles tensed in her legs and arms. Fingers clenched so tight she thought they might break. She glanced up, saw Paul standing further down the platform, one arm raised into the air.

Marta waited. Three . . . two . . . one –

‘Go!’ Paul screamed, as the wind rose to wrap itself around her. His arm dropped, and the fear, the exhilaration, the sheer adrenalin rush struck her like a hammer.

She dashed for the platform edge. Behind her, she heard Simon, Switch and Dan – the new boy – fanning out as they followed. She hoped Dan made it, of course, but in the moment of the ride it was only herself that mattered.

Racing across the cracked, dusty tiles, Marta pressed her wrists against the leather straps and squeezed the metal handles until her fingers hurt. The wood creaked, and she prayed today wasn’t the day the clawboard failed her.

She held the board up, the metal hooks on the outward facing surface angled down.

The train exploded out of the tunnel. Glaring headlights blasted through the dust curtain hung over the station’s pallid emergency lighting. The engine roar filled the air. Marta looked up as it came level with her and then rushed ahead, one, two, three carriages clattering past. She saw the thin metal drainage rail that ran along the top edge of the nearest carriage and she steeled herself for the mount.

‘Now!’ she screamed, a war cry partly for herself, partly for the others behind her. Then she was leaping at the train, the clawboard arcing in towards the rail. Her heart slammed against the back of her ribs, the rush of adrenaline so great she thought it might burst out of her chest. Eyes narrowed, teeth gritted, she stared down what in these moments was the Reaper, was Death. Don’t fuck up, her mind screamed. You fuck up, you die.

The metal hooks, two of them, four centimeters wide, dropped towards the outer lip of the drainage rail. Marta’s feet brushed the side of the carriage, and for a second she was flying. Then the hooks caught, a massive jolt shuddered through her shoulders and upper arms, and Marta had won, this time.

Her scream rose over the rushing wind: ‘Yeeeeeeesssss!’

With her feet apart, she braced herself against the side of the carriage. Her battered, often repaired trainers left tread smears in the oily dirt coating the metal. In front of her, from the carriage window, a reflection of her own face stared back, thick dreads of hair fanning out around her like columns of smoke fleeing from an explosion.

Behind her Marta heard two metallic crunches as first Simon and then Switch caught. In a group ride you rode in order of seniority. That was the rule. And I’ve survived the longest so that makes me leader. She listened for Dan, but there was only the roaring of the train and the rapid clattering of the wheels over the rails.

Something had gone wrong.


The Tube Riders will be released Monday, 19th March 2012.

A second excerpt will appear Sunday.