The Children of New Earth Read Online Free PDF Page A

stare before speaking again. “You’re right, it’s time to wake up.”
    And with that, she tightened her hold on the steering wheel, accelerated to a clearly unlawful speed, and rushed head-on towards a building.
    “WHAT ARE YOU DOING, CORA?!”
    “When you’re dreaming, the only way to wake up is to die in the dream or induce gyroscopic stress.”
    “Gyroscopic stress?”
    “You ever feel like you’re falling in a dream, and suddenly wake up?”
    “Sometimes.”
    “That kind of gyroscopic stress. Tsk, and you call yourself a scientist.”
    “So, why can’t you just do THAT?!”
    She looked back at me calmly and made the most confused face I had ever seen. “Because that would be terribly boring, now wouldn’t it?”
    I shut my eyes and waited for death. But there was no crash. I slowly opened my eyes again. The leather seat of the taxi turned softer and warmer, and the roaring engine died down to a low hum. I awoke to find myself laying on a mattress, squinting at the light until everything came into focus. There was an IV tube in my right arm, and Aaron and Rachel were standing over me. Beside them was Cora, who looked exactly as I saw her in the dream. Except here, she was wearing a white lab coat.
    “Good morning sunshine!” Cora cheered. “You’ve been out for quite some time.”
    “What - Where am I?” I slowly sat up.
    “Welcome to my Sanctuary,” Cora answered. “I’m sure Aaron has told you all about me.”
    “I did, friend,” he confirmed. “She’s the mind-reader.”
    “Aaron, you flatter me,” she said sarcastically. “Anyway, glad to see you’re still alive no thanks to these two.”
    “Hey!” Rachel interjected.
    Cora looked at her with an exasperated expression. “You were in a dark and scary tunnel with dead bodies strewn all over the place. And yet, you throw caution to the wind as soon as you hear a little girl crying? You almost got poor Thran killed.”
    “But what was it?” I asked, grateful that she would defend me.
    “That, my dear Thran, was a Siren,” Cora explained. “You see, when the war ended, not all remnants of that demonic alien race were purged from our planet. These ‘survivors’ lurk in the dark, uninhabited parts of the world.”
    “Fortunately for us, they don’t often attack in daylight, and even when we do encounter them, they are usually very weak.”
    “Thank you, Aaron,” Cora continued. “At its full strength, a Siren can mimic the sound of anything or anyone it hears. Alongside this trickery, it releases a toxin into the air that inhibits the logic regions of the brain. If you hear a little girl crying in the darkness, and you don't stop to think that that’s a little odd, you will undoubtedly fall into its trap.” She glanced judgingly at Aaron and Rachel. “The Siren you encountered was clearly weakened, otherwise we would not be having this conversation right now.”
    “There are more dangerous things out there,” Aaron directed to Cora. “I deal with them almost every day and I don’t think you can say the same.”
    After a few seconds of silence Rachel said, “I think Cora likes it when he gets all serious like that.”
    Cora and Aaron blushed. It took all my willpower to suppress laughter, both because my stomach was wounded and because Cora was someone I did not want to antagonize. I clutched the area where I was stabbed. Aaron noticed and gave me some words of comfort.
    “Don’t sweat it, Thran. I remember my first wound. Granted, it was accidental friendly fire that almost went through my heart but hey, I’m still here!”
    Cora scoffed again. “Accidental,” she muttered.
    “Wait, what?”
    “Oh, nothing,” she replied, gleefully turning away.
    “Hey, don’t be like that,” he followed her out.
    Rachel and I smiled as they walked away arguing.
    “In all seriousness, you should probably rest. We’re gonna be here for a while until we figure out our next course of action,” Rachel said.
    “Course of