Author:
Anna Mantovani is an author, blogger and songwriter based in Turin, Italy. She has a degree in Media Engineering and works in the railway sector. With her sister Maria Carla, also a science-fiction writer, she manages the blog “The Mantovanis”, which focuses on independent speculative fiction and geek culture. With her husband Dario (and sometimes their two kids as guest stars) she plays in the electropop duo “Sedona”. Find out more at: www.themantovanis.blog.

The story is set in the fictional city of Europa, in Central Europe, the last city left after a nuclear war that made most of the Earth uninhabitable and woke up dragons - prehistorical creatures that caused an mass outbreak of a lethal disease that decimated the population and turned the survivors into scale-covered, violent mutants that rebel against the government.

Sophie, a young doctor working for her boss Amanda Solarin in a medical facility, accidentally meets an elderly woman, Emma, who miraculously recovered from the dragon plague, and whose blood could be the key to a vaccine. Saving Emma from government persecution, Sophie goes on the run with her.

Meanwhile, Erik Persson, a police officer, sets out to track Sophie and Emma, while suspecting that a mole might be hiding in the ranks of the police.

Sophie and Emma hide in the slums and after almost getting caught by the police several times they finally fall in the hands of the rebels; in her captivity, Sophie discovers that the plague survivors are not as irrational and violent as the press portrays them and agrees to work with them to develop a vaccine. She also discovers that some of the survivors have the ability to communicate telepathically with a dragon.

She meets the General, the leader of the rebels, whose name is Cain, and despite her fear for his terrifying looks and enigmatic personality, she is strangely attracted to him.

The Dragon Plague

The day after the arrival of Sophie and Emma, Lukas announced that he should go and ask a friend if they had news about job offers, and therefore he had to go out.


There's a lot of stuff to eat in the fridge and on the shelves. Make yourselves at home, he offered generously.


Im leaving the keys here, he informed them, hanging the key ring on a hook by the door. The inside handle is broken and you cant open the door without the keys, so if I took them with me you could not even get out to go to the bathroom.


Maybe because of the strong emotions of the last days, or the anxiety of not being sure of how they would get their next meal, but Sophie felt hungry like a wolf. 


Still she tried not to overstuff herself and empty poor Lukas pantry.


Emma settled in a chair and began to knit: I hope that the wool I brought will be enough to finish this. Now I'm almost done.


Chapter 21