The Post-Humans (Book 1): The League Read Online Free PDF Page A

him. He gazed out at the snow-covered leaves on the ground, realizing that he didn’t notice the leaves before, just snow. Then something among the leaves caught his eye.
    He began to panic.
    Why is that here?
    His Mum’s little garden trowel lay protruding from beneath the leaves. He began to shuffle back against the man beside him, to escape the scene that was quickly unfolding in his mind.
    His hands pressed into the dirt beneath him. It was soft, like turned soil.
    This was where he had buried Perky.
    They were both sitting on the grave of the family cat. The boy jumped to his feet quickly and began to scream.
    The man followed and grabbed Andy by the shoulders and smiled. “It’s okay.”
    “ What ?” Andy whimpered and tried to escape.
    “Andy, we all have things buried somewhere. It takes courage to face them.”
    “I killed our cat! I killed him with a rock!” the boy yelled back. “I killed Perky.”
    The man shrugged. “And you will live with that. But you will live. Time to go.”
    “But we can’t see…!”
    ***
    “But we can’t…”
    Andrew Campbell looked around the room lit by fluorescent lights. He sat up slowly and his head swam.
    He didn’t know where he was. It wasn’t his normal bed.
    “Hello?” Andy croaked with a dry throat.
    A short blonde nurse parted the screen and lit up. “Oh wow! Mister Campbell! You’re awake ! We will get your wife on the phone immediately.
    “What? Why am I…?” Andy looked down at his body covered by white hospital blankets.
    “You’ve been in an accident.” The nurse said as she checked his pulse and his eyes. “You’ve been unconscious for eight days.”
    “Eight days?” Andy blinked.
    “You must have heard your brother’s voice. Amazing!” She beamed.
    “Brother? I don’t have a brother.” Andy coughed, his throat still dry. “You mean someone was here? Who was it?” Andy’s vision began to swim again, so he tried to calm himself down. “What did he look like?”
    “Sorry.” The nurse said shaking her head. “He was about six foot I guess. Bit scruffy. Kinda nice looking and he was in a suit with a thin tie.”
    “A suit?” Andy Campbell looked over at the visitor’s chair next to the bed. ‘ But you will live,’ the man in the suit had said in his dream. Or was it a dream?
    “Mister Campbell? Are you sure you didn’t know that man?” The nurse cringed.
    “Maybe I did…” Andy trailed off as he began to notice an open window at the other end of the hospital suite. It was sunny outside, a blue sky with a few fluffy white clouds. “Time to go…” Andy muttered.

Chapter 2
    IT WAS CLOSE to midnight.
    A man in a rather unkempt black suit and tie sat in a brown-vinyl drinking booth of a rowdy Ballarat club. He rubbed at his temples with his right thumb and forefinger trying to alleviate the ache in his head. It was a dull throb, like a premature hangover.
    “Why do I choose this noisy damned place every time?” he grumbled.
    The man had been asked to meet his contact at ten o’clock, but the contact was late. It was unusual, but doctors could be run off their feet for hours after their shifts were over. This wouldn’t have been a big issue for the man waiting, if he had not run out of money, but as it happened, he had spent his last eight dollars on a very weak tasting scotch on the rocks.
    He tapped a couple of fingers on the table to distract himself.
    His mobile phone buzzed on the sticky laminate tabletop. It was a message from an unknown number, probably Doctor Enstein.
    Out front.
    Coming in now.
    Where are you?
    The man lifted himself from the booth a little and looked back towards the front of the club.
    Through the crowd at the bar he could see the doctor looking about. The doctor was a tall man in a light blue shirt with a dark blue tie. He had small glasses too far down his nose and tight curly hair.
    This was the second time the man had met the doctor, and due to the nature of his current employment,