The Unimaginable World by Amber Riel (ereader with dictionary txt) 📕

“Then where do they come from?”         

I sighed.  “They are dead werewolves, vampires, and other creatures in our world.  See they can’t harm us the same way they can harm any mortal… now I will say that the zombies once the werewolf or vampire or whatever other creature it is dies they don’t have the form of whatever it was when it was alive.  That’s why when a mortal is bitten; they only become a zombie instead of the other creature as well.  It’s a long process that of course you mortals could never fully understand.”         

Ziles removed the zombie’s leg which he had in his mouth before he had his say.  “Zombies aren’t easily destroyed.  You would have to destroy the brain, but of course if you are a werewolf, all you have to do is eat them.”  He went back to the leg he was chowing on.         

Thorn and I exchanged a look, trying not to laugh.  I turned my attention back toward the mortals and regained my composure.  “Ziles does make a good point that you mortals should know about destroying the brain but all you have to do is shoot them in the head or if you use a sword or any other weapon you just have to really go for the head, well the brain inside of the head.  Now as you can tell the werewolves love the meat.  Now are there any other questions?”         

“Yeah,” Edmund replied.  “If your job was supposed to keep those things from escaping but you failed at that why should we trust you?  I mean why should we put our lives in your hands when something could happen to us?”         

The question shot through me and I closed my eyes.  Somehow I knew that would come up but I was hoping that they wouldn’t think to ask it.  I took a moment for myself to think.  “I’m not going to let anything happen to you guys.  I’m here to try to fix my mistake.  It wasn’t supposed to happen but it did…”         

“Quill knows what she’s doing and she’s excellent in this sort of thing.  It could have happened to any of us,” Thorn replied, placing hand on my shoulder.  “If I were mortal, I’d feel safe in her hands.”         

I looked at Thorn with gratefulness.  I was surprised by his kind words.         

Ziles stood up.  “I need to go look for a river to wash my hands and I was thinking that a few of us should go get some more firewood as well.”         

Thorn stood up as well.  “I agree.  Edmund, and Gus, would you two like to come with us.  I think we could leave the ladies and children alone for a little while.  Quill and Vivid will keep an eye out for them.”         

“Yeah,” Edmund and Gus spoke in unison.         

The four guys left us alone.         

Bones walked the perimeter, staying near us.  He paced back and forth as if he were guarding a treasure chest.

“I’m sleepy,” Sasha’s little voice spoke.         

I looked down at her and her brother.  They both were tired and obviously ready for bed.  “Why don’t you two climb on the bus and sleep there?” I asked.         

“But I’m not tired,” Tom spoke in a sleepy voice.         

I smiled.  “Well, Tom, why don’t you bring your sister on to the bus and keep an eye on her for us?”         

Tom nodded.  “Come on, Sasha.”  He helped his sister to her feet and they both worked their way up the stairs.         

Vivid, Anna, and I just sat around the fire in silence while we waited for the guys to arrive back when Anna started crying.         

“What’s wrong?” Vivid asked with concern in her voice.

“Oscar,” she whispered.         

I was new to the world of emotions of feeling love for a man so I didn’t know how to make her feel better.  I also didn’t know what it was like to lose someone close to me.  “Can you tell us about him?” I asked.         

Anna glanced up at me for a moment then turned her attention toward the fire which was dying down.  “He was handsome,” she whispered with a small smile.  “He meant the world to me.  Before I met him, I would cut myself.”  She looked up at me.  “Those scars on my arm were from then,” she explained.  “You see before Oscar came into my life I thought that I was worthless and didn’t belong here or anywhere else for that matter.  I thought that I was supposed to be alone forever and no one would ever love me.  I would cut myself… I wanted to feel the pain but I didn’t want to actually kill myself.  It was all for attention.  Then one day, I met Oscar.”  She let out a small laugh.  “We would talk for hours about nothing.  He would bring me out and we would do things like go to the park and take a walk around the lake or go to the movies… you know everything that couples do.  One day he noticed the scars on my arm and asked about them.  I thought he would be rude about it or yell at me but instead he took my hand and told me that I didn’t have to hurt myself.  He told me that he would always take care of me and love me and I didn’t need to get attention from him in a bad way.”

Vivid and I just listened to Anna’s story.         

“Last year, we got married… as a matter of fact yesterday,” she began crying, “was our one year anniversary and we had decided to come camping but now… he’s dead.”  She wiped tears from her eyes.         

I looked down and hid my face in my hand, feeling so much worse.         

“We were going to start trying for kids soon and now everything we had planned is gone and I don’t know if I could live with it.”         

“Anna, I began.  I am so sorry this is my fault,” I told her, keeping my face covered.         

Anna placed a hand on my knee.  “It’s not your fault,” she told me.  “Oscar always told me that things happen for a reason,” she began.  “It’s not your fault this happened.  I just don’t know if I want to live now.”

“Don’t give up your life,” Vivid’s voice spoke.         

I looked over at the demon and noticed that she felt as horrible as I did.         

“From the sound of it, Oscar wouldn’t want you to give up or to go back to cutting yourself,” she continued.  “If anything, he would want you to find someone else.”         

“Someone else?” Anna’s sad voice asked.  “But with the world gone because of those zombies how am I going to find someone else?”         

“Well,” Vivid began, “there’s got to be other survivors.  I mean you, Tom, Sasha, Edmund, and Gus survived.”         

“So far,” Anna replied, “but what happens when they die or I die?”         

Vivid and I exchanged glances.         

“We’ll figure something out,” I told her.         

Anna slightly nodded.         

“Why don’t you go ahead and get some rest too?” Vivid asked Anna.         

Anna nodded then walked onto the bus.         

I took a moment and sighed.         

“Mortals,” Vivid spoke softly.  “They have so much emotion.”         

I nodded.         

“You know I haven’t been flirting with Thorn because I really want him,” she spoke.         

I looked at her and raised an eyebrow.         

“I could tell that you like him and I wanted to see if I could get your feelings out.”         

“I don’t like him… he’s my commander.  Our relationship is professional.”         

Vivid laughed.  “That’s what you say but that’s not what you mean.”         

“I don’t like him.”         

She laughed a little more.  “You’re in denial.  Why do you get so frustrated when I talk to him then?”         

I felt myself blush a little at the question.  “Because… he’s the leader… the boss… that’s why and you shouldn’t flirt with him.  It’s unprofessional.”

She shook her head again.  “Why are you trying so hard to convince yourself otherwise?”         

“I’m not trying to convince myself… it is how I feel.”

She shook her head again.  “You think you can full me.  I know love when I see it.”         

“I’m not in love,” I denied.  “I don’t even talk to him about relationships because it’s unprofessional.  Why are we even talking about this?”         

“That’s why Elisa hates you.  She has feelings for Thorn but you get to be the one who spends time with him instead.”         

“Elisa’s always hated me,” I replied.         

Vivid nodded.  “Because you’re always working with Thorn...  she’s jealous of you.”         

I took time to think.  I didn’t know if Vivid was being honest or just trying to distract me for something she wanted to do.         

“Thorn has feelings for you too, you know.”         

I shook my head and spat out a small laugh.  “Whatever.”         

“It’s true.”         

Within the next few moments the guys, returned with fire wood.  They placed the wood down next to the fire and looked around.  “Where are Anna and the two kids?” Thorn asked.         

“Sleeping on the bus,” I answered.         

Thorn nodded.         

Bones trotted back over to us and sat next to me.         

I stood up.  “Here I’ll go keep watch.”         

“I’ll go with you if you don’t mind having a guest,” Thorn replied.         

I nodded.  “Sure.”  We stood near a few trees, looking around for any signs of zombies.  “Anna told us about her husband,” I told him.         

He nodded.         

“Apparently he was a good guy.”         

“Cool.”         

“Thorn, do you ever wonder what it’d be like to be mortal?” I asked.         

He thought for a moment and shrugged.  “I guess it’d be different… not knowing how much time you have left to live.”         

I nodded.         

“What about you?”         

I sighed.  “I don’t know.  I guess it’d be interesting to live day to day although death would be a big part of living.  I never really thought about death.  I mean we know werewolves and vampires which die but to like our families… we just live on forever.  Life on this planet was supposed to be like that before Adam and Eve eat from the tree.”  I took another moment.  “I guess we take for granted what the mortals… life that never really comes to an end.”

Thorn nodded.