Children of the Resistance

By Michael HH Warren

Being a teenager is hard enough. It’s nearly impossible when you also have to time travel between universes to save the world.

Lisa has always been content to watch quietly from the sidelines, never really getting involved with others. Being dragged into a resistance against an organization hellbent on universal domination is not how she saw her life going.

Along with Kevin and Iain, she once again finds herself time-jumping across the universe in an effort to uncover an intricate web of alternate realities and the secrets they hide. Finding Kevin’s teenage cousin is one, half alien and two, part of the Resistance, and that Earth’s government has been orchestrating an entire rebellion against the Shadow Sect, the three teens set off for Twilfar―the planet where the Resistance has its headquarters.

But the Shadow Sect has been playing with time travel for far longer than three teenagers from Earth can fathom, and they’re determined to get control of QUINN by any means possible. Even if it means fracturing reality itself to do so.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael HH Warren
• Release date: May 6, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224481293

Michael HH Warren

Michael HH Warren began writing about his life during the South African winter of 2009. Driven by a strong desire to tell his story, what began as a creative outlet would eventually become his first book, In The Name Of God. The writing bug has bitten, and Michael has since published several novels. A far cry from his memoir, these books are aimed at teens/young adults who represent Generation Z (GenZ). Still having a passion for the world of non-fiction, Michael has several ideas presently evolving into draft manuscripts. He lives with his wife, two children and three Jack Russells.

Book preview

Children of the Resistance

Quinn Book 2

Michael HH Warren

© Michael ‘Double-H’ Warren 2024

www.generationz-books.com

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the author. Brief excerpts may be cited in book reviews, provided the narrative quoted is verbatim and due credit is given by way of the book title and name of the author.

This is unquestionably a work of fiction, with little basis in fact or certainty in present-day reality. For this reason, kindly accept that no apologies will be forthcoming for any offended sensitivities.

Names, characters, places, incidents, and events are products of the author’s imagination and therefore used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or having the seemingly impossible likelihood of imitating any actual incident or event, is purely coincidental. Should any artifact, business, event, incident, institution, name or place be found to be evident and occur in public domain source documents and resource repositories, then accept that they are true to life and therefore factual.

Book design by Leila Summers

Storyline Advisor and Editor: Nicolette Stephens

Print ISBN: 9798324020972

Contents

Dedication

Author’s Note

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Acknowledgments

Dedication

For Kelly, Caden, and Generation Z.

Author’s Note

Children of the Resistance is the second book in the QUINN series following on from The Last Resubian.

Being dragged into a resistance against an organization hellbent on universal domination is not how Lisa saw her life going. Along with Kevin and Iain, she once again finds herself time jumping across the universe in an effort to uncover an intricate web of alternate realities and the secrets they hide.

But the Shadow Sect has been playing with time travel for far longer than three teenagers from Earth can fathom, and they’re determined to get control of QUINN by any means possible. Even if it means fracturing reality itself to do so.

DISCLAIMER: This series assumes a spinning globe earth, or heliocentric model, where the sun is the center of our solar system. However, if our earth is geocentric, and the center of our solar system is a stationary flat earth, having a dome or firmament above us, then this book is truly beyond the realm of science fiction.

Michael HH Warren

May 2024

Chapter One

Lisa picked up her phone for the third time in as many minutes, then plonked it down again with a sigh of frustration. Nothing. Either Kevin hadn’t received her text, or he was asleep. The latter was the most logical, given it was just after two in the morning, but the memories running rampant through her mind meant sleep was impossible.

A whole month had passed since the last time she lay in her bed staring at the ceiling, but only in the memories of four people: her, Kevin, Iain and someone codenamed Dust whom they’d officially met on a planet called Twilfar. The Quantum Networker had successfully sent them back in time to the day before their adventures to Resuba II and Twilfar had started. In the before, as she’d come to think of it, she’d also been lying awake, reliving their frantic run through an alien spaceship before they’d been sent back to Earth where Kevin had behaved like an idiotic jerk. They’d been through a lot since then, and she’d come to like the guy, even if she still doubted his capacity to act like he had two brain cells to rub together.

Still, they’d succeeded in using QUINN—the Quantum User Interface Neural Network—to get back to Earth to a time before they’d even been missing, fortunately escaping all the consequences of the particular series of actions that led to them being marooned on an alien planet with Kevin’s uncle bleeding out, and the last surviving member of an alien race of magicians unconscious after their crash landing.

Now all they had to do was reunite, find Dust somewhere amongst the billions of people on Planet Earth, destroy an evil secret organization bent on universal domination, and somehow keep their parents from finding out. Easy as pie. Lisa snorted, rolling onto her side to stare at her phone, willing it to buzz. Iain had responded almost immediately, confirming that they were going to meet up the next morning and that he too remembered everything that had happened. Now, she was just waiting for Kevin’s reply. Next to the phone lay the slim metallic piece that was her portion of QUINN’s interface, essentially useless without Kevin and Iain’s sections.

Her lights were off, but her room was still faintly lit by the streetlights outside her window. Her mother often offered to get her blackout curtains, but Lisa liked the soft yellow glow that crept in through her blinds, casting mystical shadows and silhouettes through the room. The dress she’d picked out with her mother was still hanging on the handle of her closet, it’s brilliant puce muted to a soft grey in the dim lighting. She liked it better in that color, wondered if her mother would notice if she took it back to the mall and swapped it for something more suited to her style. Probably. Pamela was conscious of every fashion choice she made, right down to matching her nail polish to her handbags. Lisa wouldn’t be able to get out of wearing the dress unless she could somehow wrangle using QUINN to escape it. The only problem with that would be getting Iain and Kevin to agree to the plan, and she’d rather die than have to explain to either of them that she was going to be dressed like a Barbie on a child’s birthday cake. Still, she had bigger things to worry about than getting out of wearing a dog-poop-purple dress. Like how to find Dust. She rolled her eyes at the name. It sounded so stupid, but she supposed that given the pressure the man had been under when he’d chosen his pseudonym, she couldn’t blame him. Trapped on a planet full of red dust that clung to every inch of them … she could still feel the grit on her skin even though it hadn’t actually happened in this timeline … which meant that he wouldn’t know the name he’d given them when they found him. Or would he, since he said he still retained his memories? She rubbed her eyes, feeling a headache starting as she tried to wrap her head around the complexities of time travel and the implications thereof.

Lisa considered herself a nerd. She liked old-fashioned clothes, collected Jelly Belly brooches from antique sales, and would rather read than watch TV. She had a fair grasp on the principles of science fiction, enjoying several novels in the genre, but the reality of living through time travel was vastly different to reading a well-thought-out description of characters exploring time-space. Suddenly impatient, she shoved herself up against the headboard, flicking on her bedside light and reaching for her phone. Shooting off a text, she waited. It didn’t take long for a reply to ping through on the instant messaging.

Hey, you still up?

Yep. Are you?

She snorted again. Was typing a reply when another message popped up.

Ignore that. Obviously, you’re still up, or you wouldn’t have messaged. Iain included a series of emojis next to the text, an eye roll, face-palm, and a blushing face. The last made Lisa grin. Iain, ginger-haired and pale, blushed vividly scarlet at the slightest provocation. Still, she wasn’t in the mood to tease the boy.

I can’t sleep. I keep thinking about how we’re going to find Dust, and Kevin hasn’t replied to my text yet. Do you think he’s okay?

I’m sure he is. Anyway, wasn’t he supposed to send us that text about our lives being in danger sometime soon?

Yeah, I think so … Lisa checked the time. The first time, she’d got the text just after 3 A.M. Given there were still 15 minutes to go until three, she could afford to be patient. Except she hated waiting. What do you think will happen when we don’t do what we did the first time?

She stared at the three dots that indicated Iain was typing … and typing … and typing. She didn’t realize her eyes had closed until the phone buzzed in her hand. Jerking out of her doze, she stared at the screen. Iain hadn’t replied, but Kevin had; a brisk message that said only:

Meet you at the shop, tomorrow. Bring QUINN.

Chapter Two

When Lisa walked into Keyes’ Second-hand Goods the next morning, bleary-eyed from lack of sleep, she felt a vague sense of surprise that it was mostly unchanged. The clerk still sat with his book behind the counter, the clutter looked as though no one had bought anything since the shop opened for business, and the only difference was the bell that tinkled merrily overhead as the door swung closed behind her.

He looked up and scowled when he saw her.

Hi. Uhm, that’s new. She waved vaguely towards the bell.

Yeah, we installed it when we realized people could come in or leave with merchandise and we wouldn’t know. His expression implied she might be one of those people and remembering what happened the last time she’d been in here, Lisa blushed.

I’m so sorry for disappearing last time. My Mom called me and told me I had to meet her. She crossed her fingers behind her back at the lie, but his expression softened.

Oh, right. I thought you were just messing me around.

"No,