Page 76 of Amaros

Chapter Thirty-Eight

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ZOE WAS HAPPY TO SEEthe board she and Amaros had placed over her window had kept the rain out.It also blocked the gusts of icy wind that heralded winter.Her bedroom was still way too cold, but the sleeping bag kept her toasty warm when she retired for the night.She hadn’t tried the fireplace along the left wall yet and would have to gather some firewood for it.

Her dreams were plagued with memories of the past and visions of the future.She saw battle after battle, but the people were obscured from her view.Strangely, Zoe was involved in the fighting as well.

She woke to the sound of birds singing just outside her window.The thick stone walls had muffled a lot of the noise deeper inside the wing.Grace was already moving around in her bedroom.The fire was going when they met in the kitchen to eat cold venison for breakfast.One of the men must have started the blaze.

“Yum,” Grace said unenthusiastically.“I really love eating Bambi’s mom three times a day.”They had energy bars, snacks and canned food as well, but the meat would go bad if they didn’t eat it quickly.

“At least we won’t starve,” Zoe pointed out, then took another bite of her meat.

Grace’s mood became even gloomier.“A lot of people will starve,” she said.“We’re too used to buying our stuff from grocery stores.No one has the skills to survive the apocalypse for long.”

“I bet the suicide rate is high,” Zoe mused.They’d seen a lot of bodies with self-inflicted wounds during their journey.

“I saw a woman stab her husband to death, then slit her wrists,” Grace said.Her gaze had gone distant as she recalled the episode.

“When was that?”Zoe asked, knowing she needed to talk about it.

“It was the morning after the Rapture,” she said, tossing the remains of her meal into a container they were using for their waste.Amaros planned to periodically put their trash in dumpsters in town for now.“I was passing through a small town and heard a man screaming,” she went on.“He sounded terrified, so I ran over to his house to try to help him.”

From her stricken expression, the scene had been horrifying.“You were too late?”Zoe asked.

Grace nodded, then took a gulp of coffee she’d made on the hotplate.“His wife had gone nuts,” she said.“The poor guy had cuts all over his face and arms.The crazy cow ran at him and stabbed him in the heart before I could stop her.She slashed her wrists, then sat down on the kitchen floor next to her dead husband.I left before she could see me.”

The guys were deeper in the main wing, cutting down one of the trees that had grown indoors.“I hate it that our females had to witness so much horror,” Camriel muttered, unaware that they could hear him.

“They’ll be safe here,” Amaros told him.“Especially once we can erect a ward.”

“I wonder what sort of magic the knights can use,” Grace murmured.

“We’ll find out once they all get here,” Zoe replied.The dreams she’d had of using magic herself had faded once she’d woken up.She could barely remember them at all now.“Let’s check how the repairs to the roof went,” she suggested to change the topic.

They left the kitchen and went to inspect the room that had been flooded every night.