Rapture (Apocalypse Gates Author's Cut Book 1)

by Daniel Schinhofen

  James gave a tight smile, “Impartial enough. I will protect my Gran first and foremost.”

  “Nonsense,” Terry said. “We are going to help rebuild part of this world. That comes first, James.”

  “We can stay, then?” Betty asked.

  Susan answered her, “You’ve gone out and helped, you volunteered your aid. So, yes, you can stay. Even the doctor, who’s done nothing but bitch, can stay for now. The problem tonight is we don’t have rooms for you all. I’ll be staying with Dad and Frank in his room. Terry and you three,” Susan nodded to the nurses, “will stay in my room. Alvin, James and the doctor will stay in the last room.” She eyed the doctor, “Don’t make me regret you sleeping inside.” She went back to addressing the group as a whole, “We’ll need to know if you want to be here for the long term or if you want to go out and find another place tomorrow. If you do, we can find you a vehicle. Dad said there are plenty of cars in town that still run. We’ll give you a few days of food and a weapon before you go.”

  “We will be given a gun like you have?” Rahim asked.

  “Yes,” Alvin interjected. “I’ll use my own XP to make it happen, if Bill will supply a gun. If you don’t want to be here, we would rather you left anyway.”

  “We can sleep on it?” asked the mousey brunette nurse who hadn’t gone into town to help.

  “Of course. Just tell us by noon tomorrow, so we can arrange things,” Susan replied. “Now that that’s settled, I have soup on the stove staying warm. You can eat in here or at the table. Once we’ve all eaten, we can take turns in the shower. First one done eating gets first shot at it, and so on until we’ve all had a chance. Do not hang back or you will wait until everyone else has had their turn, and remember to lock the door.”

  Alvin held back his laughter, causing him to snort as he looked away from Susan, which in turn caused her to turn pink. “Always lock the door,” he added, “and be sure to knock before you try to go in.”

  “Time for food,” Bill cut in as he stood up, motioning Susan to the kitchen. He followed her with a glance back at Alvin and a small shake of his head.

  As everyone got up and started for the kitchen, James hung back. He slid up next to Alvin, “So are you and her…?”

  Alvin chuckled, “Nope. Bill would kill me, and I’m fairly attached to my own life. Not that I’d object if she threw herself at me, not at all with the way she looks.” His lips quirked up as the image of Susan in the bathroom that morning came back to him.

  “Ah. Okay, then,” James said as he went towards the kitchen, leaving Alvin alone in the main room.

  Dinner went by quickly for most, everyone eager to get cleaned up. Alvin got his food last and ate slowly. As he did he watched the others, trying to pick up on if they would stay or not. He noticed the nameless brunette nurse and Rahim talking a lot in whispers. When Rahim went for his shower, the brunette spoke at length with the two other nurses. James talked to both Frank and Bill, asking them both various questions about their military history. James’s father had been rejected for service during Vietnam. Terry and Susan conversed quietly in one corner, occasional bursts of quiet laughter punctuating their conversation. Alvin noticed they never laughed when they looked at him, though.

  He was the last one left in the kitchen area besides Susan, who was doing dishes. He finished the last of his soup using the crust of bread to wipe the bowl clean before he walked it over to her. “I’ve been meaning to ask about the water and generators.”

  “We have a pump run off the turbines we have, they supply the power to the cabin as well. With this many people, though they might not last as long as we hoped. But then, we also aren’t running the air filters, which helps. We hope they’ll keep going for a year or two, then we’ll have to replace them somehow.”

  “Where are the turbines?”

  “Inside the fence line, in an underground spring. It supplies the water and energy for us.”

  Alvin though for a moment, then nodded, “It’s a good set up.”

  “Dad worked on it right after he got out of the service. Mom helped. They had it all finished by the time I was born. Good thing, too, Dad might not have finished it on his own. Mom passed giving birth to me.”

  “My condolences about your mom,” Alvin told her. “I never knew my parents. I was abandoned by them right after my birth. Given to foster care for my entire life, I never lived with any one foster parent for more than two years during my youth, and never more than a year once I started acting out.”

  “Foster kid? I’ve heard good and bad stories about how that goes,” Susan said as she finished cleaning his bowl and set it into the rack to dry.

  “Mostly the bad for me, then the worst, then more bad. I finally had a good foster parent during my last year in the system. She got me to stop fucking up and to start living a life.”

  “Is she?”

  “She is resting now,” Alvin replied. “I hope that she found the peace she deserved.”

  “I’m sorry,” Susan said, stepping back from the sink. “I’m going to see if my turn for the shower is up. I’ll also stop by with a handgun for the doctor, so you can jazz it up for him. I don’t think he’s going to stay past tomorrow.”

  “If only we can get so lucky,” Alvin dead panned as he watched her go.

  “Alvin, you have a moment?” Bill asked from the doorway.

  “What do you need?”

  “Let’s go to my room,” Bill said as he turned to walk down the small hall.

  Alvin followed, to find Frank waiting in the room as well. “Okay, so what’s up?”

  “Bill said you can go back to your cell during the night,” Frank half asked. “I’m thinking you might want to stay there tonight.”

  “Oh?”

  “I’ve been watching Rahim,” Frank continued. “I think he’s unhinged enough to do something.”

  “Can I take the pillow and blanket with me?” Alvin asked.

  “Sure,” Bill replied. “We can see about adding more to our list tomorrow while we go house shopping.”

  “House shopping,” Alvin laughed. “I guess that sounds a little better than theft or pillaging.”

  “It might help James accept it,” Bill replied. “He was doing his best to help today, but I can see him straining against his old ideals. Frank and I will be brainstorming over the next few days as to what rules we really need. How much can you take with you at a time?”

  “Ten items in my bags, or anything that’s on me at the time if it’s made a trip through the bags.”

  Frank pursed his lips, “Can you see about upgrading my shotgun for me?”

  Alvin sucked at his teeth for a second, “I don’t know how much XP I’m going to have tonight. Susan already wants me to prep a gun for stupid, I mean the doc. I can add it near the top of my list, but I can’t promise I can get it done tonight.”

  “Fair enough,” Frank said as he grabbed his shotgun and handed it to Alvin. “If you can’t, then just bring it back with you.”

  “Will do. I still need to do seventeen more guns for Bill.”

  “They’re on the bed in the room you’re going to share,” Bill replied. “Take them in any order you want. You can even count Frank’s gun as one of the twenty. We have another fifty or so guns in the cabin.”

  Laughing, Alvin shook his head, “I think I saved the right people, then.”

  Bill snorted, “Please, I would have saved us just fine. It was just getting Susan to understand it needed to be done that was taking forever.”

  Frank went quiet for a moment, “She went right after the Pope stopped talking. She looked at me with wide eyes, then she just collapsed.”

  Alvin looked at Bill who shooed him, “You get going, Alvin. I’ll sit here with Frank.”

  Nodding his thanks, Alvin stepped out of the room, quietly closing the door behind him, only to turn and find Susan there looking at him. “Err, hi?”

  “Is dad okay?” Susan asked quietly. “I heard about the kids, a
nd he’s had issues before…”

  “He had a moment before we found Frank, but he seems to have rebounded from that. I stopped him from seeing the next set of kids that I shot. I didn’t think about the nurses or James until it was too late. Right now, Frank is in there breaking down over his wife and your dad is with him.”

  “She was a good woman,” Susan sighed sadly. “It’s almost your turn for the shower. I’m after you, so please don’t take forever.” She reached for the doorknob as Alvin moved aside, “I’ll just check on them.” She slipped into the room, her face laced with sadness.

  Everyone else was in the main room, except Rahim and the brunette nurse whose name he still didn’t know. James looked up as Alvin walked in and waved him over to the loveseat where he and Terry were seated. “Alvin, I haven’t yet had the chance to properly thank you for saving Gran.”

  “Like I told you then, that was the mission I’d been given at the time. Besides, she had just as much to do with getting her to safety as I did. Let me tell you a tale…” Alvin grinned as he took a seat on the floor and told James the entire story of getting Terry to safety. “You see, she’s as much to thank as I am. I’m not sure I could have taken those three zombies all at once if she hadn’t helped. Do you still have the guitar?”

  “It’s in the car,” James replied. “I’ll go grab it.”

  Terry watched him go with a smile on her face, “He was always a good boy. I fret some for my kids and other grandkids, but he called me when the Pope was talking and said he would come get me. When the phone went dead, my heart worried a bit. But he did as he said and came to get me, with your help of course.”

  “I have no doubt he would have gotten you out without my aid,” Alvin chuckled. “The sheer relief on his face when he saw you told me how much he would have dared.”

  “Takes after his father that way,” Terry mused. “I wonder how Danny is doing in Nevada? Him, Tammy and the girls with their kids…” She trailed off, her eyes full of worry for a moment. “I’m sure they’re fine, they had a group of friends around them and they all owned guns. Lord willing, they’re okay.”

  Alvin snorted, “You think the Lord still wills anything?”

  “Hard to say, but old habits, like old ladies, die hard,” Terry rejoined.

  “Touché.”

  “I haven’t kept in practice, so let’s see if I remember how to do this,” James said as he came into the front room carrying the case. “My catalogue of songs is small, Dad only ever showed me how to play the songs he loved. If you hate Robert Zimmerman, you are not going to like my music.”

  “Isn’t he the guy who had more hit songs when others sung them, then when he did?” Alvin asked. “Like, All Along the Watchtower?”

  “Yeah, that’s him. He’s done a bit of everything music wise, well besides rap. I’ll start with an easy one, Lay Lady Lay.” James pulled the guitar out of the case and tuned it for a moment before he looked up to find everyone watching him expectantly. “Umm…” he turned a bit red and looked over at Terry, who just laughed. “Thanks, Gran. Very helpful.”

  “You’ll be fine. Besides, it’s not like there’s any other music to be had, so play.”

  James started out hesitantly, but halfway through the first song he found his stride. He finished with the same nasal whine that Zimmerman was known for in his heyday. Bill and Frank shook their heads as the song came to an end.

  “He wrote many good songs. He was just too anti-war for my tastes,” Bill added after the small round of applause died away. “Do you know any of his older folk songs?”

  “Blind Willie McTell?” James asked.

  Frank sat up straight at that, “He was a great musician, but I never heard Zimmerman do a song called that?”

  “It was left off the Infidels album,” James replied as he started strumming.

  When James came to the end of the song the room was silent for a moment. “He always did visual songs well,” Terry said breaking the silence.

  “Yeah. He was called the voice of his generation, after all,” Bill added.

  “He hated that,” James replied. “He called himself a song and dance man. He just wanted to sing and play, he never wanted all the attention.”

  “Yet he helped shape the era,” Frank put in. “To people who served, like me and Bill, he was either loved or hated.”

  “Just play, please,” Susan added a moment later, cutting off the debate.

  Alvin ducked away during the singing to get his shower in. He could still vaguely hear the music as he washed up and shaved.

  James played the few songs he could fully remember, with some of them singing along if they knew the words. After an hour, James called a halt as his voice cracked and his fingers started to ache. “That’s all I can do for now.”

  “Thank you,” Susan said with a warm smile.

  James returned the smile, “It was my pleasure. I was never good enough to make a living at it, but I do love playing. I didn’t get a lot of time once I joined the force, I had to mostly set it aside to protect and serve.”

  “Thank you,” Betty added. “Your service was a blessing. It sometimes seemed that not many wore the badge with honor and pride.”

  “My brothers on the force were mostly the best kind of people. But, there’s always an apple in every basket that you wish would get tossed. Those few aside, they were good people and I hope they survive.”

  “If nothing else, you’ll always have a spot here for a song,” Bill put in. “Just, please, learn some other songs.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  They broke up to head to bed shortly after that. Rahim and the brunette nurse came back inside from the yard. Rahim wore a smug smile, while the nurse seemed to be a bit pensive. Alvin sighed internally over the fact that the doc could get some action while he hadn’t been offered any. Both Bill and Alvin noticed the byplay between Susan and James as the group headed down the hall towards the rooms.

  Once they were in the bedroom, Alvin set about putting each of the guns laid out on the bed into his backpack, then took it right back out. He checked the first few guns, finding them all unloaded as he expected they would be, then just cycled them all through as quickly as he could. He also did the blanket and pillow. James and Rahim both watched him with puzzled expressions. Just as Alvin was finishing the game of ‘what goes into the bag next?’, a knock sounded at the door.

  James was closest, so he opened it to reveal Susan there with a Glock. “Don’t shoot, I surrender,” James joked, even though Susan had the gun unloaded and hanging by her side, her finger well away from the trigger.

  Shaking her head, she looked past James to Alvin, “Here.” She tossed the gun gently underhand, which Alvin caught carefully. “It’s unloaded currently.”

  Alvin grinned, “I figured. I don’t think you would be winging loaded guns unless it was a do or die situation.”

  Susan nodded before her eyes went back to James, “I will wait to hear the terms of your surrender at a later time. Sleep well,” her eyes seemed to sparkle as she shut the door on a flustered James.

  James turned to look at Alvin, “Did she just…?”

  “Looks like she’s interested,” Alvin nodded. “You might want to run that past Bill first, though. He is a mite protective, if you haven’t noticed. Just prove you’re worthy of his princess and I’m sure he won’t maim you… too badly.”

  Rahim snorted as he lay down on the inflatable mattress he had been given to use. “Pointless, letting someone stand in the way of what you want.”

  Alvin and James exchanged a glance before they both went to their respective beds. Alvin traded the bed for the air mattress that James had after a bit of back and forth. James seemed a bit perplexed as Alvin put the Glock into his belt pouch then laid down on the blanket with all the other guns wrapped up with him.

  “Is that really comfortable?” James asked.

  Alvin winked at him then vanished in a bright flash of light. James gasped and Rahim jerked upright
with a barely muffled curse. James stared at the empty spot Alvin had just been in.

  “Oh, he left. Good,” Rahim muttered, thinking Alvin had simply gone into the hall.

  Alvin blinked as he, the blanket, all the guns, and the pillow appeared on his bunk in his cell. Chuckling, he put the guns aside carefully before he stood up. “Jarvis, I’m home. How is your day going?”

  “Quietly, or at least it was until now,” came the droll reply. “Welcome back, sir. Did you wish crumpets and tea?”

  “Ass,” Alvin laughed. “Glad to see you’re really starting to embrace your role.”