Chrysalis Young Read Online Free PDF Page A

These are innocent people who don’t deserve to die.”
    “It’s not your fault the aliens are hurting human beings.”
    “Zombies is totally the wrong word. It’s more like they’re possessed. That’s what I was going to call them, ‘the possessed’ except that’s not much good either. In fact it’s worse, because for demons you use magic or call a priest or whatever. What you don’t do is kill the patient, like, the cure is worse than the disease. Do you know what I mean?”
    “No,” Chrysalis said.
    “That isn’t how it works,” Amanda said. “I’m unloading here and you’re the counsellor. Say, ‘Hmm.’”
    “Hmm,” Chrysalis said obligingly.
    “That’s better,” Amanda said, and went on. “A zombie apocalypse I could handle, even though it’s the meteor strike that’s going to get us. If the rising seas don’t first and we are definitely getting an ice age and maybe we’ll get all three. If we don’t blow ourselves up first or die from super Ebola, and they’re just as likely too. It’s what we deserve anyway. So although I’m a huge zombie fan, I’ve never thought it was really likely, you know, in the real world.”
    “Hmm,” Chrysalis said.
    Amanda groaned. “That’s the wrong place to say ‘Hmm.’ It sounds like you’re not agreeing with me. This is where you say, ‘You know how to stay grounded in the real world,’ or some crap like that.”
    At Chrysalis’s blank look she said, “Okay, let’s move on,” and continued. “So even though they are possessed, they’re possessed by aliens so I don’t think a priest is going to be able to help much here, and they look and act like zombies so that’s why we’re…chopping them into little pieces, but it doesn’t alter the fact that they’re not zombies. The next possibility is that Sarah was right—it’s the light ones dark ones struggle. Tell me about the dark ones, the aliens.”
    “I did,” Chrysalis said.
    “I couldn’t really get a handle on your description,” Amanda said.
    Chrysalis accessed the recording from the ship and displayed it for Amanda.
    A huge screen opened up in front of the two of them, floating between sea and sky. A 3-D video of the girl attacking them in the holding room at the Horsey Centre started.
    Amanda looked around in alarm, seeing who else was also on the beach. Away down the beach, along the water’s edge, a few dog owners were exercising their dogs. Up on the dunes, a couple of families were sitting hunched against the wind, while children played in the gritty sand. None of them took any notice of the screen. Amanda gave Chrysalis an enquiring look.
    “It’s in your mind,” Chrysalis said.
    “Oh, goody,” Amanda said. “Now you’re screwing with my mind.” It was said without heat, however, because the images on the screen had her gobsmacked. “They’re dragons,” she said. “But I like dragons. I don’t want the dark ones to be dragons.” However, that was exactly what they looked like.
    “Do you know these aliens?” Chrysalis said.
    “Not really. Dragons can be good or evil, so I guess these are the evil ones… I never believed in the dragon apocalypse either although I’m a huge fan of dragons.” She shook her head, trying to make sense of it all. “I can’t believe that it was the dragons who got us in the end and not all of the other stuff.”
    “I’d like to tell you about the dragons,” Chrysalis said. “There’s more to them than you know.”
    But Amanda went on as if she hadn’t heard. “The big problem with the light ones dark ones scenario is that if they are the dark ones, the evil ones, then we’re the light ones, protecting human beings and saving them from the dark ones. How can I be a light one if I am killing innocent people? So that doesn’t work.”
    “No,” Chrysalis said.
    “Now you’re getting the idea,” Amanda said. “That was the right thing to say.”
    The screen in the sky dissolved into nothing.
    “So I guess