Authors: John Zanetti
“Tilt,”
Chrysalis said. Amanda swung crazily around the dragon’s leg.
It had no effect. Despite having an arm free, the dragon was still braced by the other two.
“Fly upside down,”
Amanda said.
“They’ll still be braced,”
Chrysalis said.
“Try it anyway,”
Amanda insisted.
The cavern turned over. The dragons gripped onto the rock roof with clawed feet and extended their arms to grip the new floor of the cavern. They stayed upside down, expecting, maybe, that Chrysalis would take advantage of any attempt to move to a new position and waited for the ship to right itself. It did not.
Amanda, slashed with all her strength at the knee joint of the wounded dragon. It was bellowing with pain and one of the other dragons hurled some fireballs at her anyway.
Amanda got burned, and cried out in pain herself. She vanished the sword, hugging the dragon tightly with both hands, agony from her burns racking her.
The fireballs completed the job on the knee joint. The dragon’s lower leg parted company with the rest of it.
“Tilt.”
Chrysalis spun the ship around again.
The dragon lost its balance and cannoned into the other two. In the confusion, Amanda killed it and badly wounded another. She disappeared into the rock again and this time their attempts to change the rock were much weaker.
She dropped out of the roof of the cavern again, head-first this time, thrusting the sword down through the top of the second wounded dragon’s head and then somersaulting away onto a rock pillar, having hardly touched the dragon with her feet at all.
Chrysalis kept flipping the ship at every opportunity and Amanda killed the third dragon.
Tens of millions of dead dragons, all heaped up on top of one another, filled the cavern.
The battle against the big dragons continued to rage for days. Or an eternity. Amanda didn’t need to eat or go to the bathroom and the minder healed her wounds as they occurred, which was often. There were many times she nearly gave up, overcome by pain and exhaustion. From somewhere, she found the strength to struggle on, hoping the nightmare would end.
When it came it was shocking and unexpected. Amanda found herself on the bus. It was floating down through the sky, coming to rest on the edge of the charred circle where the Horsey Centre had been.
Amanda stared at the others on the bus, speechless.
“Welcome back,”
Chrysalis said.
“Did we win?”
Amanda said, feeling as though she was trying to talk through sand.
“Yes.”
“Utopia now?”
“Can we get out now please,” Beatrice said. “That was a very interesting ride, thank you.” Her sister opened the door and went outside.
Now Amanda realised that the door wasn’t a bus door at all. It was like a…carriage door on an old-fashioned horse-drawn coach. Pretty and delicate. She looked around at the bus. It was no longer a bus. It was the gondola for an airship which stretched up above her into the sky.
“The minder says nothing is perfect,”
Chrysalis said, answering Amanda’s utopia question.
“But your world is now the best it can be.”
By now the rest of her family and Sarah’s family had left the gondola and were outside, gazing at the black ash stretching away.
Still dazed, Amanda joined them. Chrysalis hopped out too.
In the distance, a long stream of brightly coloured airships, solar sails sparkling in the morning sun, drifted along.
“It’s a nice day. Chrysalis said. “Families going for a picnic at the beach.”
Amanda moved the two of them away from the others. “What do they remember?”
“Some things. Not others. The minder has supplied them, and everyone on this planet, with suitable events covering the time period since the aliens came.”
“No more nuclear weapons?” Amanda said.
“No. But they do remember the singing competition.”
Amanda looked at the long line of airships. “What happens if I take this bracelet off?”
“You’ll be like them. Do you want to take the bracelet off?”
“I don’t want to be an outsider with crazy thoughts in my head that no one else will understand,” Amanda said. Now she felt sad at the thought of losing all that had made her what she was now. “I don’t want to forget I’m different from that old Amanda. I don’t want to lose that.”
“The minder can arrange suitable events that result in this new Amanda,” Chrysalis said.
“No zombies or dragons. No nightmares.”
“No nightmares,” Chrysalis agreed.
Amanda had an even sadder thought. “Will I remember you?”
“No.” Chrysalis was about to go on when she stopped for a second or two and then said excitedly, “The minder says I’m going to hatch!”
“Oh, that’s wonderful,” Amanda cried. She smothered Chrysalis in a massive hug. This time Chrysalis didn’t pull away and they hugged each other, jumping around in excitement.
“I’ll miss you little cocoon girl,” Amanda said, trying not to be tearful.
“I’ll miss you too, warrior girl.”
They gave each other a final hug and Chrysalis moved back to the airship.
As she was sliding the bracelet over her hand, Amanda flicked a glance across to Frankie. Yeah, like that was going to happen now.
As the bracelet slid off her hand, it disintegrated into tiny little pinpoints of light that quickly vanished.
As Chrysalis watched, Amanda looked around as though expecting to see someone and not finding them. For a moment she looked quite lost.
Frankie strolled over. “Do you still want to give me your number?”
“Sure. I can do that,” Amanda said, nearly succeeding in not giving him a silly grin.
They exchanged phone numbers. Frankie sauntered away.
Sarah came over. “Don’t let him break your heart,” she said. “He’s a real douche bag like that sometimes.”
“Use ‘em and lose ‘em,” Amanda said.
Sarah nodded comfortably. She waved her phone at Amanda. “They’re saying that it was a gas leak.”
Amanda looked at the ash pile where the Horsey Centre had been. “Must’ve been a hell of a gas leak.”
“Yeah,” Sarah said. “You’d have to think so.”
They both stood looking at the black ash.
“I guess we’ll have to enter again next year,” Amanda said.
Fiction
by John Zanetti:
The Gardener Who Could See
War of the Shadows
Cantal’s Revenge
Girls with Attitude
( Sci-fi short fiction series) which includes:
Princess
Writing Home
Amalfi Echo
Would You Die For Me?
Chrysalis Young
I am a New Zealander, now wandering around northern Australia in a caravan. I am also an Australian citizen. I brought my two boys up on my own but they are now grown and gone, leaving me free to write full-time. Mostly, I count myself fortunate to be living in the tropics, with the freedom to simply hitch up my caravan and move on whenever I get restless, which is often.
Twitter: @johnzwriting