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

Sophie opened her eyes. Or rather, she tried to open her eyes, but her eyelids were heavy and seemed to be glued together. She wondered how long she had slept. 


When she managed to pry her eyelids open, she was momentarily blinded by the light. She had a headache, a dull pain that radiated from the base of her neck to her temples.


When she became accustomed to the light, she looked around. She was in a small room with battered, old-fashioned furniture. The bed where she lay appeared to be made of wood, and there were woollen blankets on it.


The pale yellow paint on the walls was peeling and criss-crossed by many cracks.


One side of the room was occupied by a fireplace with a burning fire, in which Sophie, amazed, noticed pieces of real wood. 


It was very hot, but the room remained damp and she could feel a slight layer of condensation on her pillow.


Where the hell was she? And what had happened to Emma? 


Chapter 33