The land of the dead - 01

Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine, but belong to the Impossible Pictures™.

-3-

Getting torn alive was an agonizing way to die, but it was also brief. One moment, Valerie stood there, feeling confident as always that her sabre-toothed baby would take care of their enemies in no time flat, the next – she was being torn apart by the sabre-shaped teeth in question and boy, did they hurt.

But then, abruptly, the pain stopped. Valerie opened her eyes – realized that she had still eyes and eyelids to open – and sat abruptly.

"I am..." she wanted to say "not eaten", but trailed away, as she realized that she was no longer in her front yard, but on a steep mountain slope, where a chilly wind was blowing. Therefore, she had to settle for "Where am I?" instead.

Now that was a good question, actually. This place didn't look anything like England...or any civilized countryside for that matter. Instead, as far as Valerie could see, there were no signs of human civilization anywhere... except for a solitary plume of smoke that was rising somewhat slightly further down the slope. Surely, this was a sign of human civilization or at least inhabitation?

Feeling encouraged, Valerie began to move down the slope.

There was human civilization here, of sorts. More exactly, there was a cave, and before the cave there was a fire, and before the fire there was a man. "Um, hello?" Valerie spoke, feeling less enthusiastic than before. "I'm Valerie. And who are you?"

"Tom," the man blinked, warily. "Where did you come from?"

"An amusement park. I was a ranger there."

"Oh." Tom says. "What was it like?"

Valerie grimaces. "I would've probably enjoyed it a lot more if I was a different person. Can I sit at your fire?"

"Sure," Tom shrugs. "You're the first person I've ran into since I died."

"...Say what?"

"The two of us, we're dead, dead and stuck in some sort of an afterlife for animals – prehistoric animals, I say," Tom elaborates. "I've been here for months, and you're the first person other than me that I have ever met."

"So? This doesn't prove that we're dead..." Valerie trailed away, as the memories of her pet turning on her rose unbidden in her mind. "It doesn't!" she added, desperately.

"Perhaps," Tom agreed easily, "but after several days of being here, you'll see my point nothing ever changes here, not even the weather. Why, I think that today was the first thunderstorm since I arrived here, and I've been here for several months already!"

"For several months?" Valerie said, incredulously. "You don't look like you've been here for several months."

"My point exactly," Tom nodded. "And after several months here, neither will you!"

"Um," Valerie said in an uncertain voice. "Several months?"

"We're dead, we're not going anywhere," Tom shrugged. "Want to bet?"

"You're on!" Valerie said firmly.

To be continued...