Chapter 2: Into the Echo, 🐀 Rat Gang Crew, Synthia's Not Normal, Grown Up Voice

We are working out which of or voices we prefer foe the reading of our awesome new book series. Personally, I prefer this one. Let me know if you have a favourite.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter two. Into the echo. The tunnel got narrower the
deeper they went. Pipes hissed and clicked above their heads
like a nervous audience. Let me go in front, said Cynthia.
I can hear better there. Scarlet, who was usually ahead
of others due to bravery and a teeny bit of
older sister bossiness, nodded and stepped back. After all, Cynthia

(00:24):
had skills and she was the biggest. Also, Scarlet really
liked Synth and hoped they would be Besy's one day soon.
Leading the way now, Torch angled downward to catch every
tiny shift in the ground. Cynthia held her breath so
she could listen even harder. It's definitely louder, Ivy whispered,
holding her glasses so they wouldn't slip off, and checking

(00:45):
her equipment signal amplitude has escalated by a minimum threshold
of forty percent, indicating a significant surge in waveform energy
across the transmission field since the junction. I never understand
the Math's stuff, Scarlet muttered. The sucking under a dripping valve,
I do, said Cynthia. It means we're close. Atlas trudged

(01:08):
behind them, carrying what could only be described as a
ridiculous picnic. If this robot thing's hungry, I've got three
sandwiches and half a fruit wiggler. It doesn't eat, said Cynthia. Oh,
no worries. I am pretty packish myself, but it might
hear us. Everyone froze. Then Amily dropped her spanner with

(01:30):
a clang. Boops. She whispered. Sorry. Cynthia turned and stared
at the wall. There again that thrum, but now it
pulsed in patterns like a code. Everyone quiet, she said,
count with me. They waited silence. Then from from from

(02:01):
Atlas frowned. That's music, sort of, said Cynthia, ears twitching.
It's a loop, but not made by rats. Some thing's
trying to signal or practice. Amilely tilted her head. Practice
what language, said Cynthia. They kept moving deeper into the

(02:26):
under rails where the old tram wires used to buzz.
Ivy checked a crumpled map, next hatches labeled three Z
abandoned maintenance hub could be the origin. Scarlet nodded and
opened her wide eyes even wider. They were getting to
the exciting bit. Then we crack it open, she said,

(02:47):
trying to play things down just another day in retropless.
They reached the rusted hatch. Ivy fumbled with the bolt
while Atlas stood ready with a plank of what he'd
found somewhere. Omily withheld a squeal. She was worried about
getting he new yellow dress dirty three two, Scarlet counted one.

(03:09):
The hatch groaned open with a moan that made Omily
gasp and Atlas drop the plank. Inside was a wide
metal chamber. A giant screen flickered in the dark, coated
in a fine layer of dust. Wires like vines snaked
across the ceiling. In the center sat a chair, and
in the chair, something slumped. Cynthia stepped forward, heart thudding.

(03:35):
That's not a rat. The figure lifted its head. It
had the shape of a rat vaguely, but its eyes
glowed with static, and its limbs moved with stiff, unnatural grace. Welcome,
it said, in a voice like a broken speaker. You
have reached the relay. Are you rat? Gang? Everyone stared,

(03:59):
we might be, Scarlet said cautiously, who are you? The
thing flickered. I am repeater Protocol Unit nine C. My
primary function is to listen. I have been listening for
one thousand, two hundred and nineteen days until the sequence

(04:21):
was detected. Cynthia felt goosebumps under her fur. You heard
the city change, I heard you, said Repeater, and I
remembered initiating contact, updating allies. All Ies, whispered Ivy, what

(04:43):
does it mean friends? It thinks we are friends, Scarlet
whispered as the crew hauled hand and looked on in amazement, alerting,
said repeater, Allies danger, alerting help. Then the room hummed
with a new freak, quancy, low, long, and filled with
something else, something desperate, in a sadness so powerful that

(05:06):
vibrated the very ground beneath their toes. To be continued
Copyright twenty twenty five, Sarnia de la Maire