Read Online The Stone Man - A Science Fiction Thriller by Luke Smitherd - Free Book Online

Surely the Stone Man wasn’t that heavy; surely pavement couldn’t support that kind of weight without shattering entirely?) or had basically walked straight up and over the machine. I leaned on the metal counter as the report continued, thoughts of tiredness or thirst temporarily forgotten. Across the bottom of the screen there was a tracker bar, relaying snippets of the media frenzy that had begun whilst I was sleeping through what would soon become the biggest news event of the decade, and would later become the biggest occurrence in human history. But even I had temporarily stopped thinking about my own heartbreaking career miss; the revelations in the report were just too big to let me dwell on such things.
    The military had apparently calculated its trajectory, and (although they were currently keeping its actual estimated path secret from the media so as to avert panic in the areas the Stone Man was heading for) police were evacuating populated areas in its immediate line of approach with, they said, an extremely large window of time to clear further areas should the need arise. The relatively low speed at which the statue (they called it a statue; this lasted until I cemented the Stone Man name with the media) was moving, they said, allowed for plenty of time to react for any changes in trajectory, and to ‘allow for any necessary further evacuations should our preventative measures, currently being implemented, fail at this point in time’. These were all quotes from earlier statements by various authorities. No interviews were being granted. These quotes were taken before the first ‘preventative measure’ had been implemented. As it then turned out, the timing of my arrival at the shop couldn’t have been any better.
    Later, I would see the whole footage from the actual fighter jet’s camera, but on that day all I had was the video that was being shown to the rest of the world; from the TV’s speakers I heard the sudden roar of fighter jets as they performed their first pass at breathtaking speed (loud even over the sound of the news helicopter’s rotors, a roar even at such great distance). Obviously the government were taking this extremely seriously; they’d hadn’t wasted time in despatching the air force. Immediately after the scream of the jets, there was the near-simultaneous boom of the just-launched Hellfire missiles as they ploughed into the Stone Man’s back, exploding with a devastating flash and an eruption of earth and debris that suddenly obscured the Stone Man from view.
    Both myself and the Asian guy behind the counter jumped. This feed was live now, and the attack—presumably the first ‘preventative measure’—had been unannounced. Neither of us said anything, and so we stood in silence as we stared at the cloud of vaporised earth that hung in the air where the Stone Man had been. We waited for it to clear, wondering if there would be nothing left but a pile of rubble, or a still-standing Stone Man. Before the cloud dissipated, we had our answer; the Stone Man became visible as it walked out from behind the haze of dirt, still travelling at the same pace, apparently completely unhindered by the strike. It didn’t even appear marked, other than the bits of earth and grass that stuck to its back, blending in nicely with the plaster dust that still adorned its surface here and there. Neither of us seemed to notice the reporter’s frantic commentary. We were too stunned, or at least I was. This was starting to look more serious than anyone had previously thought.
    Without taking my eyes off the screen, I fumbled around with my right hand until I found the handle to open the fridge next to the counter. I grabbed the first can I could find, pulled it out, and reached into my pocket with my left hand to fish out a coin. I put it on the counter with no idea what denomination it was; the shop assistant picked it up and put it on top of the cash register without a word. He hadn’t