Tangle in the Dark - Kassidor

She spent a lot of time reminiscing on mortal life, the lasttime she had been trapped in three-d reality. She rememberedsecretly following her father when he went out with the blowgun. The forest had grown back over the ruins that were oncethe suburban sea around Reston, except where a few yardsremained clear and well armed families grew crops in theclearing, living in the circled hulks of old cars and truckscovered with tarps. Black bear prowled the area and she wasafraid to get too far from her father, but afraid to get too closewhere he would see her. As soon as he got to his patch by theriver, he found her and scared her to half to death when heturned the blow gun at her. He pretended he thought he didn’tknow it was her at first.Being white, she had always been an outsider. There werevery few others in their area, most having evacuated deeperinto the Republican States or fled to Laurentia. She had oftenbeen subjected to open hostility, and had developed good footspeed and acrobatic ability on her way to and from school.The school had been run by a mission from Laurentia, butthey were really run from the Netherlands using a Laurentianchurch group as a contractor. They kept only the best quarterof the students but Ava had always been first by a comfortablemargin.It was in that school that she attracted the attention of theman who gave her new life. The man was a villain fromacross the river in Laurentia and she was nothing but anexperimental subject to him, but he had resurrected her in his383