All The Pretty Ghosts (The Never Series Book 1) Jamie Campbell (best life changing books .TXT) 📖

went over the minute details I saw, there was no way I could see the trick. The adults had been walking around in the cavern, the whispers of their conversation had drifted up toward my ears, and they had interacted with those around them.

They had to be real.

There was no magic involved.

“It wasn’t a trick. They were real, Oliver. You have to believe me.”

His lips curled into a smile. “Of course I believe you. It’s just them I don’t. Adults alive, it’s a lot to take in.”

“It’s a sad testament to our world now that your statement is actually true. It is a lot to take in.”

“It certainly is,” he sighed.

Silence settled upon us as we let it sink in. Now I wasn’t in desperate fear for my life, I could truly mull it over. Somehow, there were adults still walking this earth that managed to survive the Event. When all the other adults were killed, they managed to stay alive for more than a year longer.

But they had never been above ground since it happened. If they had done nothing else in order to stay alive, then surely there had to be something in that.

Something above ground had killed the adults.

That was the only conclusion I could muster. Nobody knew what had caused the Event and nobody knew why it had only taken the adults. Everyone under the age of eighteen at the time was untouched. Their grief and confusion were their only wounds.

When the realization that they were all gone had fully set in and the deep-seated panic had really started, it was the seventeen year olds that worried the most. Those with birthdays approaching nearly went mad with the question mark over what would happen to them when they turned eighteen.

Nothing happened.

Whatever had caused the Event didn’t seem to linger to take those who grew older. It appeared that we wouldn’t be struck down when we turned into adults. It took only those unfortunate enough to already hold that status.

Which was a good thing, really. I wasn’t far off turning eighteen myself. I wasn’t worried about losing my life when that day arrived. But I did worry about it every other day. If I survived to eighteen I would consider myself lucky.

Many did not get that privilege anymore.

“What do you think it means?” Oliver asked, pulling me from the swirl of my thoughts.

I shrugged, because I really didn’t have any answers. Nothing that would really explain how it was possible. “I don’t know. But I think it’s wrong to keep them hidden away when we need them so much.”

“Could they really do anything up here? You said there weren’t many of them.”

“It doesn’t take a lot of people to make a difference. Sometimes even one person is enough.” I stared at the wall, trying to make everything fit together in my mind. All I could find were jigsaw puzzle pieces that didn’t fit together.

The seeping mildew on the wall made a butterfly pattern when stared at for too long.

“What about if they die above ground?” Oliver pondered. “That’s got to be a big risk. If they managed to stay alive this long, they wouldn’t want to put everything at stake.”

“They don’t all have to come up at once,” I mumbled.

I wasn’t heartless, I knew how terrifying it would be for the adults to take that leap of faith. The threat of an instant death was enough to make them run back to their safe cavern and live out their life there.

But there was a whole population that was dying on a daily basis from things that could be avoided. If the adults took some control, showed that we weren’t alone, they might be able to change things.

Perhaps it didn’t have to be like this.

That was what I hoped the adults would truly believe in – the mission to save the children that were left. If they didn’t survive, there would be no more. Repopulation wouldn’t be possible when everyone was dead.

“How do you think the children would react?” I asked. We had focused on the adults, but there were many more things to consider.

Oliver didn’t need to think about it. “The hopeful would believe their parents would be next to return. The hopeless would think they were an illusion.”

I had to agree.

Chapter Twelve

Oliver left early the next morning, insisting he had more people to help and would return before nightfall. We were to stay in the basement until it no longer felt safe.

Or the mold killed us.

With the whole day stretched out in front of me, I knew what I had to do. There were so few things I was certain of anymore, so many promises that had been broken to ensure everything I knew would never be stable again.

But there was one thing I knew for sure.

Jet was lying.

He had known more about the adults, and the mole people themselves, than he was letting on. For whatever reason, he was keeping their secrets and did not care enough to share them with me.

But I needed to know. I had to know everything he did, otherwise my curiosity would eat away at me forever. There was no way I was going to be able to simply walk away and forget about what I had seen.

Finding the mole peoples’ territory was tricky but I knew I had to find it. I retraced my steps through the destroyed and desolate landscape. My studious eyes watched for every movement, anything that could tip me off to someone’s presence. I wasn’t going to be taken by surprise by the mole people again. It only took a slight twinge of my arm to remind me all over again.

I stuck to the shadows, conscious of my footsteps that were too loud at