The Forest of Hands and Teeth [book 1] by Carrie Ryan

Author:Carrie Ryan
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Social Issues, Love & Romance, Girls & Women, Family, Horror, Fantasy & Magic, Nature & the Natural World, Fantasy, Horror & Ghost Stories, General, Orphans & Foster Homes, Zombies, Horror Stories, Fiction, Juvenile Fiction, Death & Dying
ISBN: 9780385736824
Publisher: Random House Digital, Inc.
Published: 2009-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

Every time I come to the same conclusion: there's a connection between the letters and Gabrielle. The letters will lead me to her. Will solve the mystery of who she is and maybe even where she's from.

She was trying to tell me something when she wrote those letters in the mist of her breath on the window. And I have no choice but to accede to her message.

I tap my fingers across my lips as I think. I burst with the need to tell everyone about this discovery. To explain to them that we now have a direction of some sort. A purpose.

I trip down the path, racing past the little piles of stones I set out to mark the way back to the others, pausing only to search for the little bars, the path markers. Each time I rub my fingers over the engraved letters I can't help but laugh.

And I'm still reeling with joy and laughter when I turn the corner in the path and find Cass sitting, Jacob asleep on his side a few feet away, his little body clutching Argos like a memory of life before the breach.

“Beth is dead,” she says, not even bothering to look up at me. “They are digging her grave. I didn't want Jacob to see them decapitate her. He has seen too much already.” Grief rolls over me, the joy of my discovery leaching from my bones. I never said good-bye. I was not there.

I did nothing in her final hours but cause her pain.

“I should go help,” I say. My voice feels strained, and it hurts as it leaves my throat. Already the tears are climbing from my eyes again, slipping down my cheeks.

She reaches out a hand and grasps my ankle as I try to pass. “No,” she says.

I let my legs collapse under me until I am huddled next to her. “I'm sorry,” I say. Apologizing again, as if these are the only words I am allowed to speak anymore.

She nods. Her expression is so grave, so serious. It isn't the Cass I have ever known, the one who was nothing but sunshine and light. Who was always carefree and happy. I ache seeing the darkness creep into her spirit, taking hold of her.

I drop my head between my knees, cup my hands over the back of my neck. Suddenly, finding little scraps of metal with letters on them seems useless. It's as if the world has opened its maw.

Has brought reality back down upon us, to remind us of how unfair our life is. How useless it is to try to exist when surrounded by nothing but death. Unceasing, determined death.

A cloud dims the sun, throwing the world around us dark and cold. The wind lifts through the trees a bit; the leaves flash their white undersides. The taste of rain coats my tongue and in the distance I can hear the soft low moans of the downed Unconsecrated who rise to find us. Who heard my steps and smell my stench.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.