Ellie

The horrifying bunny monster’s clawed feet pawed at the ground, its face—a veritable sea of teeth—snapping as it scented the air.

A long, hot breath blew out of my mouth. I tasted blood.

Screw this…

I wasn’t shaking anymore. I wasn’t breathing hard. My heart wasn’t pounding in my chest anymore.

I was pissed off.

I pushed myself up off the ground and pulled my trusty Negan bat out of my inventory. Screw this thing, and screw the dumbass aliens who put it here.

It wasn’t going to kill me without losing some of those stupid teeth. It would choke on me.

I didn’t give it a chance to charge at me. I charged it.

It seemed surprised, dancing back on its four dog-like legs as I swung my bat at its head. My first swing missed, but my second, that swing hit home. The barbed wire really slashed at the thing’s squid like face.

It roared, reared back and then flew at me. My bat was raised. Heck the damn thing was practically glowing in my hands.

And then everything stopped.

At first I didn’t realize what was happening. I just thought it was life’s way of letting me appreciate the moment before I died, slowing down the action to a literal standstill. But no, after a few seconds, I realized that not even the air was moving, and I wasn’t even breathing.

You successfully—technically— survived your quest: EVADE THE PINK BUNNY!!! Came the AI’s gameshow host voice. You evaded this cute little bunny monster for 30 straight minutes. And so did your friends.

It made a show of clearing its throat. Well, except for the man-at-arms. He got his arm partially eaten, so he didn’t evade shit.

When I looked up, the timer had hit zero, and was flashing a magenta pink.

NEW ACHIEVEMENT! The AI announcer exclaimed. You actually fought back. You and the chunk of pottery boy.

Impressive!

And then suddenly everything started moving again. The air moved, I could move, and the bunny monster could move. That rabid sucker flew straight at me… and right through me.

I’m pretty sure I screamed. And then I stood there for a second, trying to process what had just happened. I turned, and the bunny monster was looking around itself, dancing around on his big long legs, its head turning one way, and then the other. It made a weird, shrieking sound.

What the actual fuck?

The thing looked around a few more times before it shook its head, and then started to race off in another direction, and away from me.

It was as if the bunny monster couldn’t see me.

That was weird.

Of course, everything was weird now.

Oh, and the bunny monster had passed right through me.

That, gave me pause. I started to wondered if I was out of phase with reality. Or in another reality or dimension or something.

That would really suck, if my friends couldn’t see me, but I could see them. Or if we couldn’t see each other.

You’re really overthinking this, came the radio announcer voice. You finished the quest. And you showed particularly entertaining spunk.

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I felt my eyebrows knitting together as I listened.

So don’t worry, everything’s fine… for now. We’ve decided to let you live to fight another day.

And that’s when the radio announcer voice stopped.

Two breaths later I heard something snap from right behind me.

I whirled around, my Negan bat raised to throttle whatever it was.

Standing there, on four soft paws, was Mr. Flox, the Fox. And he was staring intently up at me.

It took an oddly long time for the fact that I wasn’t in danger to sink in. I think it was the adrenaline, flight or fight kind of thing. But when my heart stopped pounding in my ears, and my breathing slowed, I dropped my baseball bat and fell to my knees, wrapping my arms around the surprisingly soft, and inexplicably alive Mr. Flox.

***

It was really hard to stop crying. It proved impossible to let my grandmothers crocheted gift go. I’d spent so much of my life kissing the stuffed fox good night, using it as a stand in for my grandmother. And when it seemed, someone had stolen him the day that the aliens hit us…

I had been wrecked. Until then I hadn’t realized how much that little stuffed fox had meant to me. Whether it was just stored up love over the years, or my need to have something tangible that I could cuddle up to every night before I went to bed. Mr. Flox had been all that and more to me.

When I could finally stop crying, and wiped my nose on my shirt sleeve—yeah, I have Kleenex in my inventory, but I wasn’t able to think of that at the time.

I sat back on my haunches, and just stared at the beautiful thing before me.

He was bigger than one of those Lassie dogs… and he was proportioned perfectly.

But I could see that his fur wasn’t real for. It was angora, just like the yarn my grandmother had used to make him with years ago. His eyes looked real, though, and his mouth opened, and it real-looking tongue lolled out.

And there, sewn onto his chest, was a satin heart. It was exactly like the one my grandmother had sewn on the original Mr. Flox, but it was bigger, proportionate to how his new size.

I felt my eyebrows knit together as my tongue tried to figure out how to ask what I…

“I know this is stupid to ask,” I said, “but can you talk?”

I sat and watched as his eyes stared at me, and then his head turned to the left, and then to the right, ever so subtly.

“But you can understand me?”

I don’t know what I expected him to do, but when he reared up, resting his paws on my shoulders, and started licking my face with a very soft, warm tongue, I took it that that meant yes.

I also took it that that meant that he had missed me as much as I had missed him.

“I hope you’re going to stick around,” I said through the tears running down my face. “Because I really need you.”

Mr. Flox whined, and then made happy, breathy sounds as he continued licking my face.

***

Mort

Me and Oz made it to Georgina’s house right as Wood and Teddy arrived, Teddy staggering under Wood’s weight. Teddy looked scared, and Wood looked pale and weak.

Before I could even say anything, I heard a crash inside Georgina’s house, and we heard her scream like some kind of feral monster.

She came running outside, a wild look on her face. I was ready to take a step back when she flung herself down the steps of her porch and grabbed a hold of Wood.

“I couldn’t get out of my realm!” She went from hugging him to checking him over and immediately finding his arm covered in a plastic bag.

“You’ve lost a lot of blood,” she said, and then pulled him towards the front door of her house. “I have a few things that could work for this, but none will work as fast than if I just bury you in my garden.”

Teddy lurched to physically cut them off from the steps and held up his hands. “Wait a minute! You want to bury them in your… in your garden?”

“What garden?” Oz asked.

I couldn’t imagine what Georgina was growing in her garden. Maybe more demonic cats and crazy snake like tentacles.

I thought Georgia would look pissed off when she spoke, but she looked at Teddy with tenderness as she said, “The soil in my realm has many magical properties—as do I. And I won’t have to bury him completely, just his arm. And only for a little while.”

Wood looked over at his brother and nodded, putting his hand on Teddy shoulder. “It’s okay. She would never hurt me.”

He turned his attention to the blue-lipped woman at his side, and smiled like I had never seen Wood smile before. “She loves me.”

Those words made Georgina smile so widely, I suddenly realized she had dimples.

Yowza…

And with that, Georgina led wood up the rickety wooden steps of her porch, and the two disappeared inside the house.

We all moved so that we could watch them walk through the house and back towards… well, towards a glowing portal of sorts that seemed to lead to another, much greener, and brighter place.

“Did she say she couldn’t get out of her realm?” Oz asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “that’s what she said.”

Teddy was beside us, as we peered into the house. Wood and Georgina were gone now, and all we could see was a beautiful, sunlit space, with trees, and flowers—oh, and a lot of moving vines.

Oz broke the silence. “Where’s Ellie?”

Teddy gasped and shook his head, then turn to us. “She led the monster off so we could get here. We Need to find her!”

Oz’s Eyes burned bright green, and his voice turned metallic and deep. “We need to save her!”

“Calm down, boys” Ellie’s voice came from behind us.

We all spun around, and there she stood, her Negan bat in one hand, and on the other side of her sat a large orange fox.

I blinked at it for a second, until recognition sank in. “Mr. Flox?”

Her bat glowed in the darkness, an eerie blue iridescence.

“No one has to save anybody right now, she said and walked over and gave Oz a kiss. It seemed to calm the vampire. “But we do need to find a way to kill that damn bunny. Because I’m sure that fucker’s gonna be back again, sooner or later.”