FORCES
Outline
By
Andrew Hawcroft
John Clay is the teenage leader of the inner-city youth
gang, The Red Liners. They inhabit the impoverished
Red Corners estate in South London, a law unto themselves, living for
ever-increasing kicks involving crime, intimidation and destruction.
One night, when John decides to raid the house of
the creator of an old science-fiction TV show, he sees it as nothing more than
another cheap thrill, another way to make some easy cash selling the artefacts on
display.
Laurence J. Carrington, a former professor of
English, wrote the Professor Morton’s Curious Gadget series of children’s sci-fi books
in the early 1970’s as, in his words, ‘a means of providing moral guidance to
children’. They were subsequently
adapted into a classic sci-fi TV series in the early 80’s, which ran until the
late-90’s. In 2003, after his beloved
wife Matilda died from a rare incurable illness, he ordered their large home
turned into a museum dedicated to the show, with the profits going to a charity
supporting research into the same illness.
This done, he promptly died himself, the blame going on the strain of
grief combined with old age.
The house itself is a strange place, filled with
props from the TV show, including full-size mannequins of some of the most
famous and beloved creatures from the show; The Dust Merchants, The Eleetium, a giant tooth from the skyscraper-high Strider
monster, and so on.
Breaking in, the Red Liners, hopped up on alcohol
and sugar, wreck the place, stealing anything they can fit in their pockets,
while John, the more controlled and intelligent of the gang, takes a precious
engraved pendant belong to Mr Carrington’s wife.
They escape and initially see the episode as another
‘laugh’, another night-on-the-town, just another of a hundred casual break-ins
and scenes of mindless vandalism.
Shortly after though, things begin to happen. Members of the Red Liners start behaving
oddly, seeming paranoid, even afraid, claiming ‘they aren’t alone’ during times
they should be. Some stop turning up to gang
meetings, and soon, some start disappearing. Others are discovered in terrible
states on terror, incapable of rational speech.
As the members of his gang who assisted in the
break-in fall away, John becomes aware that he is being left until last by
whatever dreadful force is pursuing the Red Liners. He begins to understand that if he is to finally
find the strength of character to atone for his crimes, the time for doing so
is rapidly running out...
