Leah's Hero - Miranda Martin Page 0,1

so many resources and was capable of producing only so much more. If the population boom kept going, we’d end up in an even worse situation. No one wanted to have to decide to end a living life, so better to slow the production of new life. We still had a long trip ahead of us, after all. Our generation would never see our new home, but we were responsible for making sure our grandkids did.

Now there are less than a dozen of us. There have to be more survivors, right? It only makes sense. I can’t fathom the idea that we’re it. Millions on the ship reduced to eleven? I know there were lots more escape pods—surely others survived? Maybe they landed somewhere else on the planet. Maybe they’re close, wondering if they’re alone too.

Could we find them? If enough humans survived, we could band together and then we’d stand a better chance against the alien Order.

The Order.

There’s a thought to wrap your mind around, Leah. We not only successfully crash-land on a planet, the planet is inhabited with intelligent life. Intelligent life that apparently coordinated the wreck of the ship you were on specifically to get more females for breeding.

The irony of the contrast isn’t lost, is it? On the ship, we had to restrict breeding due to excessive population. We were crashed to become breeders for a race that apparently lost all their females. And not another human race. No, that would be too easy to swallow.

The Zmaj are far from human. Everyone I’ve seen is or is close enough to seven feet tall, wide as a door, and muscled in every possible place. A fact that they seem to want to show off, because they only wear loose-fitting pants. Oh, let’s not forget that they’re part dragon, some kind of weird amalgamation of humanoid and mythical creature complete with wings and tail, and covered head to toe in scales.

Yet they are oddly attractive. Attractive enough that two of our eleven survivors have hooked up with a couple of them. A couple of them that aren’t part of the group that caused the wreck of our ship and only want us for breeding purposes. Or maybe they do, and they’re being smarter about how they get what they want.

Wow, that’s cynical. I’m too tired. How long has it been since I’ve gotten a full night’s sleep? Before the crash I know, but even then, I wasn’t getting a lot of sleep. My work in the medical bay forced me to keep odd hours. My shift would swing every week so that none of us were stuck with the overnight watch. It was part and parcel of the job, but it also meant that I was often sleep deprived.

Nothing like this though. This is… the worst. Even during the day I’m starting to hallucinate. Or I think I am. I see things out of the corner of my eye. My nerves are shot. I’m scared, all the time. Scared doesn’t cover it. I’m terrified. Every noise, every flash of something at the edge of my vision, and I’m frozen. Face it, I’m a mess.

I know from my training what’s wrong with me. Unfortunately, having a diagnosis, naming it, hasn’t given me power over it. If anything, it’s worse, because it makes me feel I should be able to control it. I know what’s happening, but that doesn’t make it so I can do anything about it when it happens. It’s one hell of a Gordian knot.

I shift and roll over, trying to be as quiet as possible, which isn’t very successful. Allie’s breathing hitches and I freeze, hoping I didn’t wake her up again. One of us should get sleep, at least. A heartbeat passes and she’s breathing normal again, so I finish rolling over.

It’s so hard to get comfortable. We gathered leaves and grass to put under the blankets. It’s better than sleeping on the hard, cold concrete floor but not by much. It’s still chilly too. It started raining a week ago and hasn’t stopped. A light, constant rain that’s perfect for getting you drenched. Angota, one of the Zmaj who’s hooked up with one of our survivors, Riley, says it’s the rainy season.

Angota and Rakstan are the two Zmaj who’ve taken us survivors under their wings. I feel safe with them, mostly. Neither of them have even cast a questionable glance in my direction. Angota is hooked up with Riley and Rakstan hooked up with