I started on this – and indeed my whole attempt at a writing career – after a YA author called Malcolm Rose came to my school. Does anyone know how to get in touch with him?

Anyway, here’s an extract – Chapter 1 in fact. Go easy on me. I was a teenager when I wrote this.

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“Samuel Arlston, get up to your room! And never insult your great-grandmother like that again!”

Samuel ran up the stairs into his room and shut the door. He looked out of the window at the dark Nottingham sky. He pulled his curtains closed and turned on the radio. He adjusted the turning until he found Radio Albatross. This station, which had only been on air a few months, was the trendiest (or so they claimed) radio station in Nottinghamshire.

There was a loud hiss and then there was two people talking. This was the weekly phone in. He listened carefully.

“Thank you for that interesting talk on geese”, the radio crackled, “Now for Caller No.7. What do you want to talk about, Mr Starkand?

“I would actually like to make an announcement. On Friday 29^th July, at the Broad Marsh Shopping Centre, there will be an exclusive public demonstration of the Synators”, the caller proclaimed.

“But what on earth are the Synators? Most of our audience will not know what these things are”.

“They’ve been mentioned in New Scientist magazine. They are, believe it or not, robots!” the caller boasted.

“Robots?”

“Yes, robots. But these are more than usual robots. These are the most intelligent robots that have been seen on this earth. They are as smart as mice”.

“Mice! Mice are as thick as two short planks. Are you telling me that previous robot and not to mention computers are dumber than mice, yes or no? You should see my computer. It’s a right smart Alec”.

“Believe it or not, computers aren’t actually all that smart. And I should know I have an A-Level in IT, so there! And by the way I don’t like your tone of voice. I think you should…………..” The voice stopped as the DJ hung up.

“That’s all we have time for this week. Thanks for calling and see you all next week. Chow!” Samuel turned the radio off. After Talk Time, there wasn’t that much on the radio that was reasonably good. He got up from his bed and walked over to the cupboard. Since he couldn’t leave his room, he would have to find something to take up the one and half-hours that remained before he had to get ready for bed.

He opened up the cupboard making a large number of board games and toys fall out onto the floor. He saw the familiar stuff. Mousetrap, Monopoly, his Game Boy, Go for Broke, and Game of Life. But hold on, what was this he’d found?

His attention focused on the skull that was wired up to what looked like a round console with lots of circular buttons with what looked like Russian letters on them.

Samuel Arlston never knew why he did what he did next. He put his hand on the skull and pressed a few buttons.

Which just goes to show, you should never mess around with things you do not understand. At that moment, the eyes of the skull began to glow with a yellow light. Samuel attempted to remove his hand from the skull, but found it impossible to do so. The glow began to turn green, then blue. The glow became violet and then entered the ultra-violet. At that point everything around him, except his body and the strange device went totally blurry. At that point he became aware of the coldness of space around him.

Downstairs, Mrs Jean Fasten looked at her granddaughter, who was talking about her and her husband’s trip to the Bahamas. The 94-year-old woman was falling asleep. Her granddaughter was boring her.

While Mrs Arlston was talking about the beach party, the doorbell rang. Her grandmother, who came from her father’s side of the family, got up, picked up her crutches and shifted her way over to the door. She put the chain in the hook and opened the door. It edged open very, very slowly. She looked outside and saw a robot. A Synator to be exact. As soon as she saw it, she had a heart attack and fell onto the floor. A beam of green light blasted the chain into two pieces. At that point two Synators walked through the door, over Mrs Fasten’s dead body and pointed their guns at Mr and Mrs Arlston. Mrs Arlston screamed. The robot responded by firing its deadly flayer gun. In two seconds all that was left of Claire Arlston was her blood plasma, her body salts and her clothing.

“Murderer! You killed my wife, you heartless savage! Why?” Her now widowed husband shouted at the two emotionless robots in front of him. One of the robots replied,

“IT WAS NOT A MURDER. IT WAS AN EXECUTION. SHE WAS AN ENEMY OF THE SYNATORS; THEREFORE SHE HAD TO DIE. SO WILL YOU”, it then said to its companion, “KILL HIM”.

“But she didn’t do anything!” Mr Arlston yelled back at the robots, “She wasn’t guilty of a crime! She’s innocent I tell you, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

His voice was cut off as he suffered the same fate as his wife. One of the robots picked up the clothes of the former husband and wife, while the other called Headquarters. It told its masters,

“HUNTINGDON ROAD IS SECURE. WE SHALL MOVE ON TO LENTON ROAD AND TAKE AWAY THE YOUNG AND HEALTHY, KILLING THE REST. D-DAY WILL BE SOON. OVER AND OUT”.

The two robots closed their fists, and then they placed them on what, if they were human, would have been their chests. They then chanted their blasphemous slogan: “FOR WE ARE THE MASTERS OF EARTH! FOR WE ARE THE MASTERS OF EARTH! THEGREATNESS, THE POWER, THE GLORY, THE HONOUR ARE OURS, FOR WE ARE THE MASTERS OF EARTH! FOR WE ARE THE MASTERS OF EARTH!”

After that they looted the house, taking everything that was of any use to their satanic plan.

At the Broad Marsh Shopping Centre in the centre of the city, a dozen Synators burst out of their wooden packing cases and wreaked havoc among the shoppers. First, they fired their flayer guns and the cases took on a green glow. Then they vanished and the robots marched forward, killing everyone in sight except those who were under 18.

The Synators took over Nottingham with an efficiency that would have amazed even the SAS. First of all they ceased control of the Central TV Studios and those of the BBC as well. They then took over all the city’s major buildings including the City Hall. In less than 20 hours, 20,000 were dead and the whole city was under the control of the Synators.

The chill of space subsided and the glow in the eyes of the skull went back to violet, through blue and green, yellow and then faded away. Samuel looked around and became aware of two things. Firstly, he was slightly sunburnt. Secondly, this was not his bedroom. It did not even vaguely resemble Nottingham. He found that his hand was no longer attached to the skull, and immediately removed it. He got up, picked up the device then walked down the alley. As soon as he reached the end of it, he heard a sound of machinery. He looked around the wall and saw what resembled a wagon, but looked more like a tank, coming down the street towards him. He ducked back into the alley and hid. The vehicle stopped by the entrance. A strange figure climbed out and walked around the back. The vehicle then drove off.

Samuel looked and immediately recognised the figure as a Synator. It walked towards him and stopped about two metres away from him. It barked,

“DO YOU NOT KNOW THE GRAND LAWS OF THE MASTERS OF EARTH? YOU DO NOT, I SEE. WELL NOW YOU WILL. SECTION 4C OF THE GRAND LAWS OF THE MASTERS OF EARTH, REGARDING ENTRY INTO THE CENTRAL CITY STATES THAT THE CENTRAL CITY WILL BE COMPRISED OF THREE ZONES: THE INNER, THE OUTER AND THE MIDDLE. IT ALSO STATES THREE THINGS:

1.   THE OUTER ZONE IS FOR ALL TYPES OF CITIZENS.

•  ENTRY TO THE MIDDLE ZONE IS RESTRICTED TO THE MASTERS OF EARTH AND PREACHERMEN.
•  ONLY THE MASTERS OF EARTH CAN ENTER THE INNER ZONE.

ANY OFFENDERS WILL BE FLAYED ALIVE. YOU ARE IN THE MIDDLE ZONE. YOU HAVE BROKEN THE RULES; THEREFORE YOU MUST DIE. GOODBYE”.

Samuel did what anyone would have done in his place. He turned around and ran. A beam of green light narrowly missed his neck and promptly flayed some rotting vegetables. He reached a dead end and then turned around very, very slowly. He looked at the robot, swore under his breath and closed his eyes. The robot raised its deadly flayer gun, and prepared to pull the trigger…