Supernova

Prologue

Coleen

Air. Oxygen. Breathing. It hurts. Breathing hurts.

I roll onto my side. My fingers twitch, then move up, where they feel along my stomach, my side, my hip. They come back red.

Breathing. It hurts so much. Why is it necessary to breathe?

Shrapnel, dust, blood—everywhere. I am trapped. Or am I? It is impossible to tell. But my head is throbbing. My body screams out in pain as hot needles prick at it.

No, I am too weak to see if whether I am trapped, I decide, letting my head drop.

A sharp crack raises my head again, and I peer around, squinting through dust and blurry vision to see what had made the sound. I see nothing. I hear nothing.

But maybe, I think chillingly, there are survivors.

Survivors would mean they were alive. Do they know I am alive?

Am I alive?

Breathing. Too fast, too painful. Maybe I should just stop.

If they are alive, they would be looking for me. They would be searching for me. Digging through the shrapnel, sorting through the wreckage. Looking. For me.

Let them come, I think weakly, dropping my head again. Let them find me. Let them kill me if they want.

I don't care anymore.

Let them come.

Let them come...

Peter

I can see smoke in the distance. Standing on top of the rocks, gazing out over the unchanging reddish-brown earth, a cloud of smoke billows up over the horizon.

That can't be good. Wonder what it is.

I climb down the rocks and go back into my cave.

Jason

Mentally, I'm in a battle. Thousands of lives are at stake. Most of my comrades are dead. I'm being pursued by the enemy, and the rendezvous point is still miles away.

Physically, I'm in a training room, a simulation. Around me, my unit shouts. I roll on the ground, firing at a target before ducking to avoid getting hit by the machine's little pellets that don't kill, but that hurt like crazy.

When the timing is right, I jump up and attack the machine. A kick, a punch. I shoot the control panel and shut the machine down.

My unit congratulates me. We go to the showers. Nothing out of the ordinary—just training.

I am a soldier. I am unstoppable. 

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