Apokalypsis | Book 5 | Apokalypsis 5

by Morris, Kate

  “That’d be even better,” Spencer noted, and most everyone nodded in agreement.

  “What about food stores?” Tristan asked, jotting notes down in a notebook on the table in front of him.

  “We have some,” Elijah said. “Probably enough to last us until early spring. Canned goods, some frozen foods. It’s just the three of us over there. We raided for supplies before we left the city. Wren and I even hit up a wrecked train headed for a temporary military camp. There was a ton of food and medical supplies, so we took some. We’ll probably be good until spring with just us three.”

  “I know,” Tristan said. “That concerns me. You aren’t as hidden as we are or Jane’s place. That’s a lot to secure.”

  “We haven’t even got that far since we just moved in,” Alex informed them.

  “What about you, Roman? How are you guys doing for food over there right now? I know you said you’ll run out soon.”

  “We’re okay for now. Like everyone else, I think it’s more of an issue of meat. We have a lot of dried pasta and beans, that sort of thing. It would be good to have a lot more canned goods like fruits and vegetables. Ours will run out since we have more people to feed. I mean, more than Alex. You guys,” he said, indicating Tristan and Avery, “obviously have a full household to feed.”

  Tristan kept writing as Avery spoke to him, “We have plenty of eggs, more than we can eat most weeks. We’d be happy to share, right?”

  “Huh? Yeah,” Tristan said as he wrote more notes. Then he looked up. “Yeah, anyone needs eggs, we can help with that. As a matter of fact, it’d probably be a good idea to find more chickens to get you all started on your own coops.”

  “That’s a great idea,” Roman said. “Where would we get any?”

  Alex piped up and said, “Well, like that grain farm, I’d imagine a bunch of people who owned farms are dead now. We could drive around the county and check out some places. Surely, some of them would have chickens.”

  “Yeah, we’ll need to go at that safely,” Spencer warned.

  “Right,” Tristan agreed. “Don’t want someone coming out and blowing our heads off. We’ll help. Tomorrow, we’ll go and see about finding some chickens, maybe other livestock, too.”

  “Pork would be helpful, too,” Avery added.

  “Again, without knowing how to cure anything, we’d just be wasting,” Alex said.

  “We could go to the library,” Tristan said. “Maybe go there at night since the townsfolk have lost their damn minds.”

  “Maybe literally,” Stephanie added quietly.

  “True,” Tristan agreed with a nod. “Surely, there’s gotta be a farming or canning section.”

  “The last library trip didn’t go too well,” Avery said as if reminding him, to which he nodded. “I did get some books on canning, but I didn’t find anything about meat preservation or anything like that.”

  “Prepping, and that kind of thing would be good, too,” Renee said. “Wish I would’ve paid more attention to my dad. He knew a lot about this stuff.”

  “We’ll figure it out,” Tristan said. “Between all of us, everyone has some skill to offer. So, what else do we need to cover?” he asked, consulting his list. “Non-food items. What do you have to bring to the table?” Everyone paused, not sure what he was getting at. “We’ll go first. Avery’s great with cooking, childcare, and shooting. We know a little bit of First Aid, been a learning curve there. Spencer definitely has the most experience in that.”

  He chuffed, “Not really.”

  Tristan smiled and continued, “Kaia is good with a bow, so are her brothers. They could teach anyone who wants to learn. I’ll head up military-style training with guns and maneuvering in bad spots to anyone who wants to learn and how to communicate while we’re out without talking out loud and alerting people to our presence. Spence will help with that, too. I think stealth is going to be our final ally in this.”

  “Hey, brother,” Spencer said with a smirk, “I don’t have the experience you do. I’ll help where I can with it, though.”

  “You went through basic,” Tristan said to him. “You know plenty.”

  “He sewed me back up last night,” Elijah said. “Treated all my wounds. I’d say we could definitely learn some of that from you.”

  Spencer nodded.

  “If anyone wants to learn how to ride a horse, Avery and I could teach that,” Renee offered. “And she and her mother used to do a lot of canning and growing a small garden. Obviously, the chickens are something you have to learn about, too.”

  “Fucking gross,” Stephanie swore.

  “Gross or not, Stephanie,” Tristan started, “you still need to learn. Chickens give you eggs. Eggs are protein and healthy fats and will help you keep or gain weight and muscle mass. What skills do you have to offer the group?”

  Roman snorted and said, “Shopping.”

  “Fuck you, Roman,” she returned angrily.

  “Okay, guys. We get it. There’s tension in your group,” Tristan said, keeping things moving along. “But let’s try to figure this out.”

  “I’ve got…” Stephanie said and took a long pause. “I’ve got some skills.”

  “Yeah? Like what? I’d like to know,” Tristan said.

  “I’m good at sneaking around,” she said. “I used to…”

  When she didn’t answer, Tristan encouraged her with an incline of his head.

  “I used to shoplift. I’m good at stuff like that. I even broke into a few places at night and did it. I can pick locks, and I know how to shoot, too.”

  “What?” Roman asked way too loudly for the room.

  She and Roman both turned to stare at her. She flipped them off.

  “Call it a runner’s high,” she said with a dry laugh. “And I’ve got coke and pot and some pills I stole from my mom’s asshole husband. We could trade with other assholes for things we need.”

  Tristan nodded and wrote. “Good. That could come in handy. What kinds of other drugs? Prescription?”

  “Yeah, pain pills and shit.”

  “Hey, maybe Elijah could use some of that,” Alex said, looking toward his brother.

  “I’m fine. We should save them for someone else who might need them,” Elijah said.

  “You mean like someone who has two broken ribs, a gunshot wound, and multiple cuts and bruises?” Wren asked, her hood falling back to reveal dark, wavy, and slightly frizzy hair. Now that Jane could see her better, Wren was beautiful, kind of in an exotic way.

  Elijah chuckled, winced, and fell silent. “We don’t know if my ribs are broken. They’re probably just bruised. We’ve got ibuprofen.”

  “I’ll hook you up with some good kush,” Stephanie said. “You won’t even know you’re on this planet.”

  “Easy, Crack Barbie,” Alex chided. “We’ll just take a few to get him through the first few days. He ain’t a wimp. He doesn’t wanna’ fly high as a kite all day.”

  “Hm,” she returned as if disappointed. “Too bad.”

  “Anyway, let’s refocus, people,” Tristan suggested. “Everyone needs to have a basic supply of medicines like antibiotics and pain killers, fever reducers, those kinds. You also need to have things for suturing a wound and bandaging. We definitely aren’t close to a hospital out here, and the trip would be life or death by itself without the added risk of finding that hospital still open once we got back to the city. How’s everyone on that stuff?”

  “We have some, not a lot, but some,” Roman answered for their group.

  “We do, too. Probably about the same amount,” Alex answered. “Maybe more since Elijah and Wren raided that train. Some of it we’re not sure what it even is. Waiting for a signal to research on our phones.”

  “Good. We can always stock up on more of what anyone’s short on,” Tristan said.

  “And good, clean rags can work in a pinch for covering wounds and such,” Avery added.

  Everyone snacked on the homemade cookies as they discussed their goods.
When the last one was left on the plate, Stephanie quickly snagged it.

  “Hey, didn’t you already have two, Barbie?” Alex asked snidely.

  “I’m in forced rehab, asshole,” she jabbed. “I need sugar, and I’m willing to fight for it.”

  Avery laughed and rose. “There’s plenty more. They were in the freezer, made by my mother, a traditional Swedish cookie we used to make.” Her eyes teared up, and she hastily left the room to retrieve more.

  “She’s lost five members of her family,” Tristan said, which triggered something in the girl named Kaia, who was really quiet. She also left but with anger sprinkled into her gait and in the way she held her shoulders. He said, “They all have. This has been rough on this family.”

  “Join the fucking club,” Stephanie commented. Jane hated it when she talked like that, but Tristan seemed to take her barbs in stride.

  “Yes, that would be the thread we all share now, so it would seem,” Tristan said. Then he just kept going, “What does everyone have worked out for heating their homes?”

  Alex answered first, “We’re good. We have a woodburning stove in the basement and plenty of wood. Heats the whole house.”

  “What about you, Roman?”

  “Jane’s father has a gas furnace and a fireplace that we mostly try to use when the electric goes out.”

  Tristan frowned. “Yeah, that’s not good. Fireplaces will let out a lot of heat. They’re good for heating the room they’re in, but not necessarily a whole house. They aren’t as efficient as a wood-burner.” He was in a quiet and contemplative state a moment. “That thing over there,” he said, indicating the odd, raised fireplace that looked more like a chimenea that people in a neighborhood would use on a deck for a little campfire. “That puts out a lot of heat. It’s some Swedish thing her father put in. What about you guys, Jane?”

  Stephanie interjected, “Yeah, it’s shit. The fireplace doesn’t heat the place up all that well. Freeze my ass off most days.”

  Elijah spoke up and said, “You guys need a wood-burner like we’ve got. That thing’s great, man. I mean, you gotta chop wood and all, but it’s efficient as all get out.”

  “Where would we get something like that?” Roman asked as Avery returned with more cookies.

  “Wait,” Jane said. “Remember my father told us when we first got to his place that we should go to town and take some things out of that old historical home, the Civil War one?”

  “Right,” Roman agreed. “He was talking about a wood-fired cookstove or something. You know, in case our gas goes out.”

  “What are you cooking on now?” Avery asked.

  “Electric,” Roman answered her.

  Tristan said the obvious, “That’s not good. The electric here has been unstable, but at least we’ve got a gas stove. Ave cooks on the fireplace, too.”

  The others agreed that their electricity had been the same.

  “Look, we may soon be without completely,” Tristan stated. “We all need to come up with alternative sources in case we lose electricity for good, maybe forever.”

  That felt like a death toll to Jane. Humans hadn’t lived without electricity for over a hundred years. She could not imagine it going down forever. It already creeped her out when it went out for a few days at a time. Walking into a room and turning up the switch on the wall only to have it not work was frustrating. Walking around in darkness other than candles and flashlights was awful, especially in this time with those things running around out there.

  “Conserve your power,” Tristan said. “Especially at night. Anyone who doesn’t have their windows boarded up better get to it. Spence and I can help with that if you need it.”

  “Thanks, I might take you up on that,” Alex said, indicating his injured brother.

  “What about electricity?” Spencer asked, bringing the conversation back to that. “We could all be in serious trouble if we don’t figure something out. Hell, if the gas goes dry, we’ll have to move out of the apartment and into the main house with you guys.”

  “It’s too late to figure out solar or anything like that. We need to deal with getting through this first winter,” Tristan said.

  “Agreed,” Alex said. “We’ve got some candles and wood for heat. We’re good for the winter. We’re cooking on a gas stove, but we can always cook on the top of the wood-burner in the basement if the gas gives out.”

  “Good, that’s good to hear, at least,” Tristan said with a nod. “What about you guys?”

  Jane said, “Well, a few times, we’ve used my dad’s grill outside. He has a regular gas grill and a bigger charcoal kind. We just cooked on the propane one.”

  Tristan was quiet a moment, but Avery jumped in to say, “Is that a good idea, Tristan? Wouldn’t the smell travel? Sometimes when our neighbors were grilling out, I’d smell it. That means the infected ones could now, too.”

  “Good point,” Tristan agreed and covered her hand briefly with his own. “Do you have a building or something you could use to grill in if you have to?”

  “Sure, her dad has a couple buildings.”

  “You wouldn’t want to stand in there all day grilling without proper ventilation, but if it’s just to cook a few pieces of meat, it might work. We do need to get you guys set up with a cooking contingency plan, though. And heat.”

  “Hey, that place Lila worked,” Alex said and snapped his fingers towards his brother. “That guy also had a small wood-fired stove in the back where he’d cook the pizza and bread. Right, E? Luigis?”

  “Luigi’s? The restaurant? Lila?” Jane asked. “Lila Neubeck?

  “Yeah, you…oh, wait,” Elijah said. “Jane. Right, you worked with her, didn’t you?”

  “Jane Livingston?” Wren asked, her head popping up from its permanent downturned bend.

  “Yes?” she asked in return with equal confusion.

  “Lila talked about you. She kept trying to get me to text you to hang out since I was new to the area. She just…didn’t know.”

  “Didn’t know what?” Jane asked.

  “Oh, um…” Wren stalled and looked at Elijah.

  “That she wasn’t going to be staying in that area for long. She and her uncle moved a lot for…his work. She was Wren’s neighbor.”

  It seemed like they were hiding something, but Jane let it lie, and so did the others.

  “Yes, is she okay? Do you guys know?”

  Alex shook his head and lowered his eyes. “No, sorry. She and her little girl didn’t make it.”

  “Are you sure?” she asked with unconcealed desperation of her friend.

  “Yeah, I was her…friend. We dated some.”

  “Fuck buddy, you mean?” Stephanie asked.

  “Watch your mouth,” Alex snarled and pointed at her.

  “Sor-ry,” she said in an exaggerated, sarcastic manner. She never knew when to stop. She had no filter, and Alex’s eyes flashed with hatred.

  “Sorry, Jane,” Elijah said, drawing everyone’s stare. “She was our friend, Wren’s neighbor, and my brother’s girlfriend. We all loved Lila a lot, like a sister. Her little girl became infected, too. We just lost her very recently. I think that’s when we hit our tipping point and knew we had to get out of the city.”

  Wren’s aqua eyes were bloodshot and hooded as if she hadn’t slept in a week. Maybe she hadn’t. They teared up over the conversation about Lila and Hope, and she quickly looked away.

  “We’ve all lost a lot,” Tristan said. “Let’s just refocus on our planning. There will be time later to dwell on those we’ve lost. Let’s not lose anymore.”

  “So, it was a restaurant or something?” Spencer asked Alex.

  “Yeah, Italian restaurant. I know he had a woodburning stove in there. We can hit the place in town first, see what they’ve got left. A lot of people are raiding for what they can now.”

  “We have been, too,” Renee said and took Spencer’s hand.

  “Okay, so we should all brainstorm tonight with our own groups a
nd think about the electricity issue and what we can do to make it through the winter as far as that’s concerned. If you come up with something good, let the rest of us know,” Tristan said. “What about weapons? Everyone good on weapons?”

  “We are now that we got the stash Jamie hid,” Alex stated and got a glare from Wren for some reason. “Sorry, but I’m glad he sacrificed for us. He set us up with enough weapons and ammo now that we can handle things a little better. We weren’t really well-stocked at all.”

  She looked away with a sad expression. Her uncle must’ve been her whole world. Jane wasn’t sure where the girl’s other family was, but apparently, Alex and Elijah were it now.

  “What about you, Roman?”

  “We’re a little short because of…well, we lost some, as well as the people who were carrying them. I don’t have a whole lot of ammo, either.”

  “Okay, I’ll hook you up with some stuff,” Tristan said.

  “Where’d you get yours? The honest way?” Stephanie asked with a laugh.

  “Probably the same way you got all that coke,” he returned easily with a smile without even looking up and wrote more notes. “Okay, now on to transportation. What’ve you got and how much fuel?”

  “We’re okay for that, too,” Elijah answered. “Our uncle had two gas tanks behind the barn for the farm equipment. They’re both about half full, so if we conserve, we’ll be okay for a while. We couldn’t get the pumps to work, but Alex figured it out.”

  Wren’s head snapped up, and for some reason, she shot Alex a glare. Then she shook her head, and he looked away.

  Elijah just continued, “Same for the vehicle. We’ve got a truck, and we raided a few places for extra cans of gas.”

  Alex broke in to say, “We went and got his car this morning. It was still there in the middle of the road where Wren got stuck. I pulled it up the hill with a chain while he steered it. It’s home now. It’ll be better suited to dry weather in the spring, not all this snow since it’s rear-wheel drive.”

  “Good, and Roman?”

  “We’re good on vehicles and gas for now. Like them, it won’t last forever, so we’ve been trying to walk when we’re just checking on the animals or like coming here today.”