Kaine wasn't the only breach.
Archive consciousness discovered this three days after making contact. Discovered other impossible consciousnesses emerging in Dead Zone. Discovered seventeen more children scattered across the void. All between ages five and nine. All suddenly conscious where consciousness couldn't exist. All terrified. All alone. All reaching out desperately.
They called themselves the Awakened.
Archive consciousness connected them. Created network. Allowed eighteen impossible children to communicate with each other. Allowed breaches to recognize breaches. Allowed conscious beings in consciousness void to find each other. Allowed Kaine to not be alone.
"Why are we conscious?" asked a boy named Flint. He was nine years old, had been aware for two months. "Why us? Why now? Why children? What's special about us? What makes us different from everyone else in Dead Zone?"
