Cosmo Prison - Book 1: The Edge of Earth

Chapter 36

Chapter 36 

*Sara Fuller*

“Hello, Sophie,” Dean murmurs.

Sophie’s mouth moves, but no sound comes out.

“You didn’t abandon me, did you?” he asks, looking a little nervous. “You still -- I mean, we, uh--”

I put my hand on Sophie’s shoulder. “She’s in shock, and I wouldn’t blame her. You’re kind of supposed to be, you know, dead.”

“I know,” he mumbles.

At that moment, Sophie shakes herself out of her reverie. However, instead of giving her previously-dead boyfriend a warm welcome back, she stomps up to him and punches him in the stomach.

“Ow, what was that for?” he yelps, clearly taken aback. This isn’t what he expected, either.

“I’ll tell you what that was for, Dean Zhang!” She punches him again, even harder this time. “After all you put me through, you have the nerve to ask me if I abandoned you? You think you can just come back and save the day -- and everything will go back to normal?”

Dean blinks. “Sorry--”

“You’re the one who abandoned me, you little swine... DON’T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN, OKAY?” Sophie yells, then bursts into tears and pulls him into a bear hug. “God, Dean, I missed you so much,” she sobs. “I would never abandon you.”

Dean hugs her back, almost lifting her off the ground. "I missed you, too."

“Mind telling us how you came back?” Chris interjects, a little rudely.

Dean smiles slightly. “It’s kind of a long story. Let’s go sit down somewhere safe.”

After we make our way to the nearest shack and seat ourselves (not too comfortably) on the floor, Dean starts talking.

“I can’t remember anything that happened right after I died -- and yes, I did die -- but I woke up lying on a stretcher in a white lab room. As soon as I came to, Christy appeared in the room and told me that she’d saved my life.

“Apparently, after you guys escaped, Sid brought me back to the Cosmo Prison, where Christy stuck some sort of mutated gene into my DNA that was supposed to make me superhuman, like her. I came back to life, but I was deemed a failed experiment; all I can do is play with fire, which doesn’t quite fulfill Christy’s standard of superhuman. My brain isn’t wired the same way, I’m not immortal, my skin isn’t steel-like, and I can’t fly. I was still supposedly indebted to Christy, since she revived me, but I took the first opportunity I had and escaped because I wanted to come back to protect you guys -- my friends.”

For the first time today, Jack speaks up. “Where did Christy get all that science-y stuff? She doesn’t seem like the researching type.”

“She stole the work of the guy who created the original three superbeings: herself, Sid, and Rachel,” Dean explains. “Rachel was the first experiment and didn’t quite have the full powers that newer superhumans like Christy have, but the creator seems to have figured out how to extend those powers as much as possible.”

We all fall silent, trying to imagine someone with that much power. Superhumans and that kind of stuff wasn’t even supposed to be possible, and this guy had discovered a gene for them?

“So, what’s the next plan?” Dean asks, interrupting our thoughts.

“Oh, it’s basically just your Zerg rush idea,” Chris answers.