Apokalypsis | Book 5 | Apokalypsis 5

by Morris, Kate

  “That’s not a good idea.”

  “But I’ll take the shower instead,” she said. “Jamie wouldn’t want me to do anything reckless like that anyway.”

  “No, he wouldn’t. Besides, I’m sure those losers got the hell outta’ there anyway. I sure would’ve. I’m not sure how many of them there were, but you guys wiped out a lot.”

  “Good.”

  She left the room abruptly without another word, leaving Elijah standing there. Knowing it was wrong, he picked up her phone and hit the power button since she’d left it on. It lit up to her photos screen, which she never let him see. He peeked out into the hall to make sure she was not coming back. Dixie was now lying in front of the bathroom door. He scowled at her judgy expression and ducked back into their bedroom. There were screenshots of documents, things that looked like they were official government types. Then there were photos of road signs, state marker signs as if she’d taken pics of the different states when she’d moved. A picture of a random cowboy hat, another of a horse, some of sea turtles as if she’d done it while snorkeling, another of a bee on a flower, a snake in the middle of the road, an owl, a surfboard, a lizard, a red barn, an armadillo. They were like snapshots of her life, minus the usual teen selfies and pics of friends.

  Then he clicked on a file of photos labeled, “Bondi,” which he knew was where she used to live, Bondi Beach, Australia. There were photos of her family, Jamie, and her when she was younger and still living in Australia. Her father, or who he assumed was her father, was a big man, at least as big as him. He had dark hair like her. She had her mother’s light eyes, though. There was a pic of her and her mother, a light blonde, each holding surfboards as if getting ready to hit the waves. They were both giving the hang ten symbol. Others were with her little siblings, who were cute kids just like her. In every pic, Wren was smiling or looking content, at least. She rarely smiled around him. She had a really pretty smile, too.

  He also noticed something else. In the photos where Jamie was present, he was always in the background. Just a glimpse of him was visible, always in a suit. In one pic, he zoomed in and saw that he was holding a compact machine gun and had an earpiece in. He’d been a constant in her life, in her family’s lives, like a statue in the background made of pure steel, a formidable bodyguard and protector. He was never smiling, but in some photos, he was looking in the direction of Wren. He’d protected her, given his life for her in the end, but he’d also loved her very much.

  He shut off her phone, leaving it on the photo screen like he’d found it, and on the bed the exact way he’d found it, too. Wren noticed everything. She’d know if he’d snooped.

  Going downstairs to give her privacy, he had a heavy heart. Elijah felt so bad for her. She was so alone now. He had Alex. They now had new friends and allies. Wren probably felt like she had nobody. However, that wasn’t true. She had him. And he only had to convince her that he wasn’t going anywhere.

  Chapter Ten

  Jane

  They left Noah to keep an eye on her father and walked with Stephanie and Connor to the neighbor’s house. Destiny didn’t want to come, so she told her she could stay and help keep the fire stoked. Her friend was in the throes of grief. She now had no one left at all except Jane and Roman. Destiny’s mother was the last remaining person in her family, and now she was gone. Brian was her boyfriend, a boy she’d been crazy about for the last three years and someone she’d finally started dating. He was gone, too. Jane tried to encourage her friend that she still had her, but it didn’t seem to be doing any good. She needed time to heal. Really, they all did.

  “Fucking cold,” Stephanie complained.

  “I told you to wear something warmer,” Roman told her. “Quit complaining if you aren’t going to listen.”

  Stephanie sent her usual glare their way.

  The hike was indeed a cold one, but they managed. It was better than using up their precious gas taking a vehicle. Roman cautioned everyone about using their resources. He always walked to check on the horses they’d brought from Mrs. Goddard’s riding academy. They were intermingled on the abandoned grain farm living with six beef cows and now Maureen. Her father told her that they might need to butcher one of the cows in the future for food. She sure hoped not. The idea of killing and butchering a cow was about as gross as it could get. Roman was confident he could hunt a deer soon and butcher it, as well. Their meat reserves were already waning thin.

  “Here it is,” Jane announced as the gate opened as if on command. “Looks like their electricity works fine.”

  “Maybe the gate is on solar,” Roman commented.

  Their own electricity was sketchy. Sometimes it stayed on for days. Other times it would be on for an hour. Worse so far was when they lost it for three days. This morning had been a luxury because they’d all been able to get a hot shower. The only one who’d complained was Connor, who didn’t, as a general rule standard with little boys, like to shower anyway. One of the PSA’s warned that the government was doing everything they could to keep the electricity going but that people should also immediately make alternative options. She wondered if that was their way of telling them it wasn’t going to last long and that things were never going back to normal again. She hoped not.

  The trek down their winding, steep lane was a little tricky, but with Roman’s help, she didn’t fall.

  “Wow, nice pad,” Stephanie commented as the big glass and cedar mansion came into view. Most of it was boarded up, but Jane could imagine what it looked like before. She’d never actually met the Andersson family, but her father said they were friendly people.

  As soon as they approached the double doors, one swung open, and a man came out. It was Tristan, the soldier, the intimidating person she’d met before. The sleeves of his shirt were pushed back to his elbows, which revealed a lot of ink.

  “Come in, the others are here already,” he explained and ushered them in. “Drop your shoes there.”

  They did as he requested, leaving their snow-covered, wet boots on a wide, thick mat that looked waterproof. Then they followed him into a large open room, a kitchen-dining-living area combination with a cool metal fireplace in the corner that was putting out a tremendous amount of heat. It was cozy and so modern yet different inside, unlike anything she’d ever seen before. The others were gathered around a really long table, and the smell of roasting meat permeated the whole house. Two younger boys walked through the living room with a huge gray bird on the one’s arm.

  Avery was so pretty and eloquent and made some introductions, starting with her family.

  “This is Finn, over there is Kaia,” she said of the younger boy, who stopped only to nod as he passed through. There was an angry-looking teen who seemed close to Jane’s age, who inclined her chin in greeting. She just stood there with her arms crossed, biting her thumbnail, her eyes darting around to look at everyone as if she found it an uncomfortable notion they were in her home. “And you’ve all met Abraham. Ephraim is around here somewhere.” The big gray parrot of some kind squawked from the other room, a glass-enclosed atrium that was rather tropical and lovely. “And that’s his bird, Mr. Gray,” she quipped with a gentle smile as Ephraim came out and closed the door to the atrium behind him. “I’m Avery in case I haven’t met all of you.”

  Everyone nodded, shook hands since they all knew they were uninfected, and greeted each other in such a normal way that it somehow now felt abnormal. Roman introduced her and his little brother.

  “And who are you?” a fierce-looking man in a camouflage ballcap asked Stephanie, who was sort of hanging back.

  “Your mom, what’s it to you?” the antagonistic one of their group remarked. Her response didn’t even surprise Jane. She was very used to Stephanie, so it didn’t phase her. However, she didn’t want the others to take offense.

  He only snorted dismissively. “I’m Alex, and this is my brother Elijah. That’s Wren.”

  “Goodie,” Stephanie said dryly.

&n
bsp; Jane felt sorry for the girl, Wren, because she knew what she’d just gone through last night from Roman telling her. She didn’t look well, and Jane wondered why she’d even come today. She also didn’t look like she’d slept at all yet.

  “She’s Stephanie,” Roman interrupted her with a nasty look. “She’s with our group. For now.” He said that pointedly toward her and got a sneer in return. “Noah is another person in our group, but he’s…not well right now.”

  “He’s lost his fucking marbles,” Stephanie filled them in with typical crude language.

  “Stephanie,” Jane scolded quietly. Then she explained to the others, “He’s been through a lot. Kind of what Elijah went through, I suspect.”

  “Nah, he didn’t get the shit beat out of him,” Stephanie corrected. “He’s just a pussy.”

  Roman shot her a stare with his thick dark eyebrow raised, and she shrank slightly. Jane was glad he never looked at her like that.

  “Yeah,” Stephanie corrected, “guess not everyone’s equipped for this.”

  “Yes,” Avery began with a sigh, “I suppose you’re right. Who could be, though, right?”

  Stephanie offered a one-shouldered shrug and remained quiet.

  “We have a few others in our group,” Jane offered. “Destiny is also with us, but she just lost her mother as some of you know already, so she was unable to come. And my father, who is sick.”

  “With what?” Alex asked with a critical eye.

  “Oh, no, not the virus,” Jane was quick to answer. “He was shot when we fled the city, and his wound has re-infected. He’s not doing well, I’m afraid.”

  He nodded with a lopsided frown as if he was considering whether or not she was telling the truth. Jane didn’t bother explaining Maureen. It was a rabbit hole of negativity nobody needed to hear about yet.

  “Finn, why don’t you and Ephraim show Connor around the place? Maybe he’d like to play with some of your action figures,” Avery suggested. The little boy seemed reluctant to let go of Avery’s leg but finally did so. Connor was also hesitant but received a nod of approval from Roman. When they were gone, Avery told them, “We had a bad night. Those things came. Got a couple of our chickens. Wouldn’t leave for about two hours, right before Tristan got home.”

  “Scary,” Jane said with sympathy and got a nod.

  “Oh, here come Spencer and Renee,” Tristan interrupted as two more joined their group, shaking off the snow at the door. “Everyone, take a seat.”

  Renee introduced herself and her boyfriend, if Jane were guessing correctly. She seemed like a fun person and had dreadlocks and wore a lot of jewelry and colorful clothing. Jane never would’ve been comfortable in anything so bold and flamboyant. She reminded her a little of Destiny’s mom, and that just made her miss Harper even more.

  Avery and her sister served tea in kettles full of hot water and set platters of cookies and tea bags of various flavors in the middle of the table, along with dippers of honey and little pots of sugar. It made Jane feel sad because it reminded her so much of Nana Peaches- their quiet hospitality and general demeanor.

  “Let’s get down to work,” Tristan stated as Avery brought in a carafe of hot coffee, too, which he helped himself to. “If we’re going to do this, become allies in this, we need to establish rules and laws for our section of this valley. We need full disclosure, as well.”

  “What do you mean?” Roman asked next to her.

  Everyone was seated except for Spencer and Renee, who were sitting at the counter on bar stools, and also that Alex guy, who seemed mean and very closed off. His brother looked like he was in a lot of pain, and the girl with them, Wren, looked dazed and out of it. Jane figured she was depressed and in mourning. She understood that feeling perfectly, having lost Nana Peaches.

  Stephanie was also standing behind them, leaning against a window that was boarded up. The table held a lot of people, and Jane noticed framed family photographs hanging on the walls around the room. Some of the people in those pictures were not present or mentioned, so she was left to make terrible assumptions, which were probably accurate assumptions.

  Tristan explained, “We need to know what you have as far as supplies, weapons, food, ammo. What the layout of your homes and properties and buildings look like, and what other assets you have.”

  “Wait a minute,” Stephanie said behind them. “Are you serious?”

  “It’s necessary,” Tristan said. “Think about it. If we’re going to help each other, say you call over and tell us you’re in trouble, how the hell are the rest of us going to be able to help if we don’t know the layout of your property? We could walk into an ambush or into an area we’re not familiar with and get our asses kicked.”

  “True,” Roman stated and shot a look of warning over his shoulder at Stephanie. “I have no problem with that. We could use the help. We’re….down some people.”

  Elijah, who was pretty quiet and possibly doped up on pain killers, said, “We all are. And I have no problem with this, either.”

  He looked at his brother, who nodded.

  “Hey, I remember you,” Avery said and snapped her fingers, speaking to Elijah. “I saw your picture in the city. Tristan took me with him to gather some supplies we needed. I saw a banner in that town with your picture on it.”

  “Right, football,” he admitted.

  Jane realized she probably knew him, too, or at least of him. Their schools were rivals in sports. He did look familiar, even with all of the bruising and swelling on his face.

  “I don’t agree with this,” Wren stated quietly, cupping her hot mug as if she were freezing still, although she sat the closest to the fire. She was wearing tattered, black faded jeans, and a matching hoodie with the hood still pulled up. All Jane could make out were pale, icy greenish- mint eyes with dark circles under them.

  “Wren, I know it’s hard, but we have to trust them,” Elijah told her gently and touched her arm, to which she flinched slightly and pulled back.

  “Jamie wouldn’t like this,” she said.

  “Remember what he said…last night,” he said softly. “This is the way it has to be now. We have to work with people, stick together, strength in numbers. Tristan and Spencer were in the Army. They have a better idea about some of this.”

  She shrugged. Elijah looked at Tristan and encouraged him to continue.

  “I’m not the enemy here. The enemy’s out there. Many of them and they come in many forms, as we all now know and are all too familiar with. We work together? We might have a chance. You want to work alone? That’s your choice.”

  Alex said, “We’re with you. No worries on that.”

  “Okay, then. I’ll go first. We have enough food to last till probably late spring,” Tristan stated. “Meat? Maybe not. We have quite a lot of MRE’s. You know, space food kind of stuff that you just add water to, but I’d rather not dip into those. Spencer and I were planning on going deer hunting.”

  “We were, too,” Alex said. “You know how to gut one?”

  Tristan shook his head. “No, my experience wasn’t in that.”

  “Right,” Alex stated.

  “I know how,” Roman said. “And I was also planning on hunting. Our meat reserves are getting really low. We’ve raided a few stores, but I don’t think we’ll make it into late spring. We maybe have four weeks left of food. And I don’t just mean meat.”

  “We could fish, too,” Jane offered. “The stream is deep by us. My father said we should learn how to fish, hunt, and trap out of this area and the stream.”

  “We have a lake, too,” Alex offered. “I know it’s stocked. My uncle kept it stocked, and I checked it.”

  “But if we don’t know how to preserve what we catch, we’d have to fish it daily,” Renee offered and got nods. “We brought some of my family’s cows. We’re hoping not to butcher any until the fall, let the heifers calve, and then butcher later in the year. They’ll calve this winter.”

  “There’s some cows where we
dumped the worthless horses we brought,” Stephanie said.

  “Horses may not be worthless forever,” Tristan said. “If this doesn’t get better, those might be our transportation mode someday.”

  “What kind of cows? And where’d you dump them?” Spencer asked.

  “Beef cows, we think,” Jane answered. “And there’s a grain farm that butts up to the back corner of my father’s property. The owners are gone. My father checked when he came off the fracking rig and came home. Dead. That’s why we left the horses there. There was a lot of hay and grain in the barns and silos we’ve been using to feed them all. Plus, the water there runs from a natural spring that pours into a basin. We’d be happy to share with you, Renee. I mean, share what we’ve stolen, I guess.”

  “Thanks,” Renee replied, her dreadlocks bobbing in time with her head.

  “That’s great,” Avery commented. “And, Alex and Elijah, we put our horses and cows on your uncle’s farm- I mean, your farm now- because we didn’t know where else to put them. Plus, we didn’t know you’d be coming there to live.”

  “It’s fine,” Alex said. “I thought I saw them a few times, but when we went out to search, we never found ‘em. We also have hay in the barn. I think the silos may have some grain, but I don’t know if it’s any good anymore. I saw some bagged up in the barn, too. It’s been there for years, probably rotted, but we could check it. We can probably work something out. We’ll help take care of them for a share of the beef in the fall.”

  “That sounds agreeable to me,” Tristan said and looked to Renee, who nodded, too.

  “I thought I saw a horse the other day,” Elijah said. “We’ve only been there a few days. Then Jamie got left behind, separated in the chaos of fleeing the city.”

  “Yes, I’m so sorry for your loss, Wren,” Avery offered with a gentle smile. Wren simply gave a nod and toyed with the silver bracelet on her slim wrist. Jane got a tiny glimpse of what looked like a tattoo under it.

  “Jane and I also talked to a farmer she used to know up near Massillon,” Roman told them. “He has cows, and it’s just him and his little boy now. He said he’d share if I came up and helped butcher in the spring.”