The Magic Wakes by Charity Bradford

There should be video files attached as well.”
    Landry opened a video file. The video showed a tiny girl, no more than one or two years old. She had soft golden curls framing her baby face. Her eyes seemed huge for her petite face, perhaps because she looked terrified as a technician hooked her up to a series of electrodes and wires. She lay perfectly still as she was placed in a glass observation box.
    “Her mother claimed the child was having night terrors that caused her temperature to fluctuate and send her into seizures. We never saw or recorded any evidence of that. My final diagnosis was a croupy baby and an overprotective mother.”
    Dr. Morin shrugged his shoulders.
    “That’s it?” Landry deflated. He had hoped to find out more to explain how a child could be marked so different from everyone else. The only thing he had learned was she had violet eyes, and he could see that for himself.
    “How did her parents die?”
    “Donnelly Zaryn had the normal health problems associated with a man of his age, and he refused to slow down. One day he had a heart attack out in the protected lands. I believe the daughter actually found him. She was only sixteen at the time.
    “Helen, the mother, seemed to fade after her husband’s death and she developed respiratory problems. She could have survived the illness if she had let me do the lung replacement.”
    He leaned back and closed his eyes a moment. “I will never forget the daughter’s face when Helen died. She was utterly lost. Luckily, her brother came to get her the next day.”
    “Why were their deaths not recorded? This slip in procedure led to an offense that was unnecessary.”
    Landry could not bring himself to admit how he had used it to accuse Talia.
    “I don’t know. We have records of their deaths in the paper files, but it seems the clerk never scanned them into the online database. I promise you that will be taken care of today, Major Sutton.”

    The sound of screams filled the air. A man sat across from Talia in an aeroflyer with heavily tinted windows. Through the course of her dreams, she had met many people but could not remember meeting this particular man.
    “Who are you?” She glanced at him and then peered through the windows, trying to see which part of the city they were in.
    “Lynel Geofrey. We’re going to die, aren’t we?” The man barely whispered, making it hard for Talia to hear him over the screaming outside the vehicle.
    The aeroflyer rested on the ground, slightly tilted, and Talia gripped the seat to keep from sliding out. The sky was a dusky gray and stars fell to the ground throughout the city.
    Wherever they fell, smoke rose and people died. People ran to escape with their children and possessions. Some tried to get into aeroflyers, but those who succeeded became grid-locked before take-off.
    As Talia looked through the sky window, she saw thousands of aeroflyers bumping into each other as they tried to escape.
    There was a new sound and Talia and Lynel looked down the south end of the street. They could hear a low buzzing followed by short high-pitched bursts. Just the sound made Talia’s heart race, and then she saw the streaks of red light flying through the crowd. Each time the light found a target, someone exploded into a fiery ball.
    Lynel’s eyes grew huge at the sight of the Dragumon clearing the street before them. Before she could stop him, he reached out, opened the door and hit the ground running. Talia didn’t want to watch him die, but she looked away too late.
    Once all the people on the ground were dead, the Dragumon turned their attention to the sky. As they shot down aeroflyers, some broke free and escaped, but the falling wreckage brought down just as many tansports as the plasma beams. Fires spread as the wreckage crashed into the buildings.
    The ground rumbled and Talia ducked for cover.
    Paralyzed by fear, she waited alone inside the aeroflyer. She was always alone in the end.
    Wake up!
    Once