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

A car appeared at the opening of the street. It was quite an old car, a taxi whose display on the roof gave a busy signal. 


There was something wrong though: taxis never travelled at that frantic speed, nor usually looked so massive... 


The car was approaching fast, but not enough he couldnt see, for quick instant, the scales that crossed the face of the person on the driving seat.


They want to reach the two women, he understood.


With his last strength, he stood up, picked up the garbage can next to him, and threw him against the car.


This was forced to divert to avoid it and skidded sideways. 


The car stopped before crashing into the pavement (the rebel driving must have excellent reflexes, or at least good brakes, Erik thought), then backtracked to resume its run passing by the trash can.


He had to stop them... he couldnt allow them to get the two women on the run, or they too would be lost forever too.


Chapter 26