Zahyra Read online

  “It’s not your fault either.” Zahyra spoke firmly, looking into her mother’s eyes as she did. “It’s his loss. He shouldn’t have left us, but it’s his loss. You and Asher – you’re all the family I need. Please, don’t cry because of him.”

  “You’re so wise,” Zahyra’s mother smiled, cupping Zahyra’s cheek in her hand. “My sweet little girl, I’m so lucky to have you.”

  “Aw stop it,” Zahyra joked with a smile. “You’ll make me cry as well.”

  The two of them laughed together and then sat in silence, their arms wrapped around one another. Zahyra thought carefully about what her mother had said and accepted that she would never truly have all the answers she wanted about her father. But the longer she thought about it, the more she became happy with the notion that she still did have a family, even without a father. Her mother and Asher meant everything to her and she would do everything in her power to keep them both safe.

  About an hour later when Zahyra finally made it back to her own room she crawled into bed and stared up at the muddy-brown roof over her head. She could hear Asher’s breathing coming softly from the bed beside hers and allowed it to relax her towards sleep as well. There was at least one comforting piece of information that she had got from her mother – her father had carried some sort of intelligence related mutation. Knowing that, Zahyra felt confident that Asher could develop a similar mutation himself. She would remain the only Zero in their family; a fortune that was perilous, but definitely a burden she was willing to carry if Asher could be spared the same fate.

  The next morning Zahyra was thrown back into helping finish off the build of the third wall. Now that everyone in the camp was working on it, they all agreed it was madness they hadn’t thought to build it sooner. Asher wandered around the groups of people with a smile on his face, proud of himself for his idea coming to fruition. Zahyra was happy to see him there and even more pleased that the camp elders were not taking the credit away from him. They were very respected members of the camp society, but there were still a couple of them that Zahyra felt uneasy around. Although she had quite often had issues with authority.

  She couldn’t have been happier when her mandatory school lessons had ended earlier that year. With the turn of her fourteenth birthday marking her as an adult in their camp, she was no longer required to attend the tedious lessons held every morning. It did mean instead that she had to take part in the harder, manual labour jobs around the camp, but Zahyra much preferred that work anyway.

  The lessons had always dragged out for hours and the teacher – who was also one of the camp elders – had never seemed to take a liking to Zahyra. It wasn’t that she wasn’t clever; she had excelled in both reading and writing, making her way through most of the books in the camp by the time she’d finished school. She also engaged in the lessons about the outside world, learning how to set traps for wild animals and what berries you could and couldn’t eat. She had even sat quietly and listened to all the tales from The Before Time, even if many of the stories she found to be unimaginable and impossible. The tale that people had once flown above the clouds in metal boxes just seemed ridiculous to her, equally so was the one about how there were devices which allowed communication with others who were miles and miles away.

  No, it wasn’t anything that Zahyra had done in school that made her particularly dislike the lessons; or gave reason for why the teacher disliked her. She had just always felt bored every morning. She was a firm believer that you could learn everything by doing; although it was a premise that her mother had always tried to diminish in her.

  At least now she was marked an adult she could do as she pleased – to an extent. Zahyra knew she could even leave the camp if she wanted to, but that was something she had mixed feelings about. She did like her home and she was happy living there. She understood all the warnings about the desert wastelands and the advanced mutants that lived within them and no part of her ever wanted to meet any of them. But a smaller, different part of her still always wondered what the outside world was like.

  As she scrambled up the newly built wall to fasten the last few ties of rope together Zahyra gazed out into the distance like she always did. Scaring away that wild dog in the forest had been the most exciting thing to happen to her in a while and that new release of adrenaline had got her heart pumping for something more. She suddenly felt like she was missing something, but couldn’t figure out what. There had to be something more to her life than the camp she lived in and its now three walls. Zahyra had promised her mother she would stay safe and look after her and Asher and she knew she would – at least until Asher turned ten. She realised however, that she couldn’t predict where the future would take her after that day. But like always, Zahyra was ready for a challenge.

  About the author

  Hi! First of all let me say thanks for reading my novella. I hope you enjoyed it and are looking forward to book one in The Generation Series being launched in April.

  I'm a young author writing my first set of books, although I have been writing since I was old enough to hold a pen. It's something I love to do and would love even more to be able to do as a full time career.

  If you'd like to get in touch with me about anything relating to my books, or just to talk about writing; please don't hesitate to get in touch. You can find all my details on my website: www.esrichards.com

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