The Mortis Desolation (Book 1): Mortis Read Free Page B

founder in his twenties, sat down next to me, and started talking.
    “How’re you feeling, Miles?” he said, leaning in.
    “A little beat up, but I’ll be fine.”
    “You going out with Pike later?” He flashed a smile and ran his fingers through his bushy blond hair.
    “Yeah,” I said giving him a dirty look. “Of course I am, that’s my squad.”
    Daniel held up his hands and leaned back. “Hey, man, no need to get defensive.”
    I felt guilty and gritted my teeth. I hated snapping at Daniel like that, but I didn’t say anything about it. I couldn’t apologize for every little thing.
    Daniel didn’t say anything else. He started talking to Rachel whenever she came and sat down on his other side. It was fine with me; I just sat there and listened.
    “Have you talked to George?” Daniel asked Rachel.
    “No, I’ve been busy keeping an eye on Miles and Andrew. Plus Lisa has the flu, so my hands have been full.”
    “Doesn’t sound like a lot,” Daniel teased.
    Rachel hit him on his arm. “Shut up, asshole. Let’s see you try.”
    Daniel grabbed Rachel’s hand and smiled. “I’m just messing with you, babe.”
    Rachel smiled at him, and kissed him on the forehead.
    I stopped paying attention to them, jealousy filling me. That could’ve been me and Ashley, but no. I had just talked to her about it before we left on the scouting trip that claimed her life.
    “Why can’t we be together?” I had asked her. “Give me a clear answer, because I’m tired of guessing.”
    She looked me straight in the eyes, unblinking, like she’d practiced this in the mirror a million times before. “Because it would just end in pain. Nothing lasts in this world anymore, not even death. I’m just trying to save us the heartache.
    Tears crept out of my eyes, no matter how hard I tried to keep them in. “You’re not the same, Ashley. You’re just not the same.”
    And it was the truth.
    At least she’s in a better place, now, I thought.
    “Miles?” I heard someone shout, breaking me out of my daze. I looked around, and saw it was George. He was standing up from his seat in the middle, looking at me, his eyebrows raised. “Well?” he said.
    I looked out and saw the crowd of people looking at me. The Q&A had already started, and I didn’t even notice.
    “Sorry,” I said. “What was it?”
    George smiled, enthusiasm radiating from him. One of the reasons we chose him to be the leader. “It’s okay, buddy. I know you took a little knock to the head!”
    The crowd chuckled, and I gave a fake laugh.
    “I asked how long it would take to get The Wall repaired?”
    “I don’t know,” I said. “I haven’t taken a look at the damage. It shouldn’t take long, though, once we get the supplies. We’ll work day and night to get safety restored.”
    “What about if another one of those Xenomortals comes?” Henry Jenkins, a chubby thirty-year-old asked.
    “ Xenomortises ,” George corrected him. “And we’ll do what we did this time: kill it.”
    “Yeah, because that worked out so well for us,” a woman said.
    I rolled my eyes. You try killing one, I thought.
    “These things aren’t easy to kill, but now that we have a better idea of how to do so, they shouldn’t be too difficult. If we ever even encounter one again! This is the first one we’ve seen in over a year, and that one was the first one we saw ever! These things are obviously rare around here. I doubt we’ll see another one for a long time, if ever.”
    “But what about all the zombies? There’s a lot more than usual,” Gerry, one of our guards, asked.
    George scoffed. “What about them? The number of zombies we see is always fluctuating. The number we’re seeing now isn’t a problem! We’re easily taking them out.”
    “I wanna know more about the Xenomortises!” Tonya, one of the older adults, asked.
    George sighed. “I’ll let Peter handle this one.” He turned to Peter, who sat next to Rachel. “Pete?”
    Pete fixed his