Apokalypsis | Book 5 | Apokalypsis 5

by Morris, Kate

  “Yes, sir,” he said. “He’s…he’s having a hard time processing it all, but he said there were probably a dozen men, a couple women with them, too.”

  “That’s a lot,” he said. “Y’all hear that? There’s six of us, double of them. At least double, possibly more. We’re outnumbered, so everyone needs to be on high alert in town. We’re getting close. Keep your eyes open and your ears alert. Be aware of your surroundings. If something seems off, tap your partner. Try not to be loud. Be careful of bumping stuff, knocking crap over, that sort of thing when we’re in buildings or houses. Keep an eye out for your partner and watch each other’s backs when they aren’t able to. If your battle buddy is looting through things, you watch their back and your own, too.”

  “Got it,” Roman said.

  Tristan rolled to a slow stop or where the stop sign should’ve been at the end of the road. There was only a left or right turn, a dead-end into a field ahead. He turned right.

  The roads were still bad, barely any pavement showing through the deep snow. Tire tracks were mostly down the center, not on either side of the road. The big truck held on and plowed up the road regardless.

  “Everyone, lock and load now,” Tristan ordered quietly as they drove into the small town. “Fingers off triggers. Safeties on. We’ll see how that works out. If it causes problems, we’ll have to walk around cocked, locked, and ready to rock. I just don’t know your level of experience yet, so let’s be careful and keep the safety on. We came in the back way, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a bunch of people out and about in this area.”

  “Right,” Alex agreed from the backseat.

  Wren removed her pistol from the holster and double-checked it. It was already set with one in the chamber and the safety on, the way she usually carried. Then she replaced it inside her jacket. She pulled her stocking cap lower and sat up a little straighter.

  “There’s the historical house,” Roman pointed out. “Up ahead. The old brick one with the white door.”

  “Got it,” Tristan said. “We’ll go in here together. Two people will wait. Alex? I’ll put you and Stephanie on that. This should only take a minute.”

  “Sure, we’ll wait, watch the truck,” Alex agreed.

  He pulled up to the curb, and they all got out. She noticed he left it running. Wren quickly looked around and drew her gun. The sun was out today, but it was cold as hell. She was wearing fingerless gloves to leave her trigger finger free so that it didn’t get stuck in the trigger guard.

  She didn’t see a single person on the whole block, just empty, boarded up, or abandoned homes and some vehicles left in the middle of the street, one pair crashed into each other. There were no children building snowmen or throwing snowballs or sledding. It was eerily quiet and still. No cops patrolled, either, which made their work easier.

  “Let’s go,” Tristan stated and moved forward.

  Roman went next behind Abraham, and she pulled up the rear. Tristan tried the door to the faded and weathered red brick mansion and found it locked. Wasting no time, he broke the leaded glass panel beside it, a decorative feature of the double door system, and reached through to unlock it. They were in.

  Everyone stood in the foyer, dripping snow all over the inlaid hardwood floor, and waited, listening intently. Finally, Tristan nodded, and they moved forward.

  Their steps were noisy on the old floors that squeaked and creaked underfoot, even in carpeted areas. He led them toward the back of the house where the wood cookstove was still in place. It was big, cast in creamy ivory porcelain, and looked brand new and very heavy.

  “Roman, run out to Alex and have him bring the truck around back. It’ll be easier to load through this door into the alley back here,” he said, looking out the window over the antique white porcelain sink.

  “Yes, sir,” the tall kid said and took off.

  “Wren, help me figure this thing out,” Tristan requested, and she holstered her pistol again. “Abraham, go out and grab the toolbox when he gets there.”

  “Yes, sir,” the blonde boy said and darted out the back door.

  Tristan was already kneeling down, trying to look behind it.

  “I think this top piece comes off,” she said of the back.

  “What’s the top for?”

  She shrugged and opened the door on the small compartment there. There were parts and screws in a plastic bin with a lid. She showed him.

  “Store that in your pocket or something. We’re probably going to need them.”

  He pushed on the whole top half, and it tipped an inch.

  “Yeah, we could load this separately. Might help,” he said.

  Roman and Alex came in and immediately got to it, helping lower the upper half of the stove to the kitchen’s brick floor. Abraham helped, as well.

  “That wasn’t too bad, but I think the lower half is gonna be a bitch,” Tristan said. “I think this sucker is cast iron and porcelain coated.”

  “Oh, boy,” Alex remarked.

  “Well, they need this thing,” he said. “Hell, we might all need something like this eventually.”

  “True,” Alex said. “Not us, though. We’ve got a more modern version of this in our basement.”

  “I think it’s a reproduction. Seems brand new,” Tristan echoed her thoughts.

  Alex said, “If we have to, we could cook on ours, I guess. Let’s take the lower half out first.”

  “Right, we gotta get this sucker on the truck,” Tristan stated. “Wren, why don’t you check the place out to see if you can find anything else any of us might need.”

  She nodded and left to the sounds of the men grunting, cursing a little, and wrestling with the monstrosity of a stove.

  The first floor was set up in a museum style with the rooms available for view but roped off to keep people off of the antique rugs and furniture. She simply stepped around them. Trying to keep their farmhouse in mind and what they already had, Wren didn’t find anything they needed, so she went upstairs. There she found two oil lanterns, which she assumed they could use if the electric failed. All they had were candles and flashlights. Then she found a cupboard in the bathroom and discovered a display of old medicine bottles from another century and strange little tins that were mostly empty, likely old salves of some sort. They were pretty cool, some still with labels, so she took them in case there was valuable information on the labels. She hoped things got better soon, but if not, they might need to understand the old medicines from another time and figure out how to make them. She also found a pile of linen towels and took those.

  She deposited everything near the back door, where the men were still struggling to get the beast of a stove into the bed of the truck. Then she went through the kitchen cupboards but didn’t find anything of use. As a matter of fact, they were empty, with the exception of a few pieces of fancy china and a tea set from another time, a simpler one.

  Next, she went to the basement and had to resist the urge to flee back up the stairs. Tristan had already cleared the area, or she wouldn’t take the risk. It was damp, dank, had a mildew smell to it, and was creepy with only the one small window letting in any amount of light. She pulled out a flashlight from her jeans pocket and flicked it on. The basement was also mostly empty, but she found three more of those lamps that held oil. They were fancier versions with bubbled glass. Now, they just needed oil. There were boxes with vinyl records in them. Not useful at all, so she skipped that. Along one wall was a shelving unit that held boxes, old, some ripped, but full of things. Mostly, they contained seasonal items to decorate the historical home for different holidays. She did find a box with more linens, so she snagged that one. After placing the lanterns in the box with the linens, she carried the whole thing up and placed it by the back door, too.

  The men came in, having already loaded both pieces of the stove, and took out the items she found.

  “Nothing else,” she answered Tristan before he could get the question out.

  “Alright
, let’s move on.”

  “Where to?”

  Roman said, “We should at least try to pick up some medical stuff while we’re in town.”

  “Could be dangerous,” Tristan countered. “We’re on the outskirts of town. Going all the way in means more danger, or potentially more.”

  “With Jane’s dad being down like he is, and nothing seems to work to clear up his infection, I feel like I owe it to her to try.”

  “I understand,” Tristan said. “Just be on high alert.” He turned to the rest of them and added, “That goes for everyone.”

  “Aye-aye, Captain,” Stephanie said with a salute and got in the truck.

  Wren rolled her eyes and got in the front, the middle this time. Abraham, who was always quiet, sat beside her while Tristan and Alex tied down their loot.

  “So, what’s your deal, Abraham?” Stephanie asked.

  “Deal?”

  “Yeah, where ya’ from and all that.”

  He frowned and looked out his window. “I’m from this area. You’ve been to my home. Avery is my sister.”

  The others got in after Tristan slammed the tailgate closed.

  “How old are you?”

  “Seventeen,” he answered.

  “Leave him alone,” Alex told her.

  “What’s it to you?” Stephanie asked. “I’m just trying to get to know people. Is that a fucking problem?”

  “He’s not like you. Just leave him alone.”

  “You don’t know him, either, idiot.”

  “I know enough about you, and that means you should leave him alone.”

  She offered a pout and a snorting noise through her nose as if she were offended. Then she whispered, ‘asshole,’ under her breath. She was partially right. Alex was an asshole sometimes, and Wren didn’t like him very well, either. Maybe this Stephanie girl wasn’t as bad as she thought.

  “Okay, which way do we go, Abraham?” Tristan asked as he pulled out onto the street. “I was only based here for about four months. Most of the time, I spent it driving around the county, not in town.”

  “You were based here with the Army?” Roman asked.

  “Yeah, for a while. It was a temporary post.”

  “Why temporary?” Wren asked with suspicion.

  He stalled a moment before saying, “Just a detox kind of thing before getting back out there. A mental health day, if you will.”

  “Hm,” she answered contemplatively. Wren was gauging whether or not Tristan was a loose cannon and if he could be trusted.

  “Turn left up ahead,” Abraham instructed. He was a big kid, tall, slightly broad, and athletically built. “The school is that way or the urgent cares and restaurants, the more industrial part of the city is that way.”

  “The school, huh?” Tristan asked. “Think anything’s left?” He turned slightly to explain what he meant. “We’ve been there already. Big complex. All schools clustered together for the whole county, plus the library and bus garage. We found a lot of gas there, but we also had a problem with night crawlers at the library. Spencer and Renee told us when they went back the next day, someone had burned some of the buildings, but I’m not sure which ones. Think we should check it out?”

  “I…uh…got some supplies from our old school,” Roman said. “My little brother Connor has asthma. We were out of his meds. Pharmacies were all down by then. I broke into his grade school and hit up the nurse’s station for inhalers. Could be a lucrative spot to try.”

  “School it is then,” Tristan agreed.

  He turned left again and drove them slightly back out into the country but in the opposite direction of their homes. Wren was trying hard to memorize the area since she’d never been down this far south of the county she used to live in with Jamie. She’d hit up a few roads near them with Alex and Elijah, but not this small town. She and Jamie never got the chance to get their bearings here.

  Just thinking about him made her feel anxious and sick to her stomach and so very alone. She’d never felt this alone before in her life. He was always there. Always. Her rock, her emotional and physical support, her friend, her only living relative- although he wasn’t really. And now he was gone. Everyone was gone. Soon, the people in this very truck would be, too. She pulled her face mask a little higher. It felt arrogant to think that this thin cotton mask would shield her from something that was killing so many millions of people around the world.

  “There,” Abraham announced a few minutes later. “That’s their school. They built it after the frackers came to town.”

  “Is that where you go to school? Or did?” Stephanie asked.

  “No, ma’am,” he answered politely. “We were all homeschooled.”

  “That’s weird,” Stephanie remarked quietly. “Were you in a cult or something?”

  “What?” Abraham exclaimed. Then he answered a little angrily, “No.”

  “Like I said,” Alex said. “Out of your league.”

  “Shut the fuck up,” she answered immediately. “If I want your opinion, I’ll ask for it, dick.”

  He snorted this time. Wren had to hand it to her. The girl had some guts to talk to Alex that way. Wren mostly tried to avoid him at all costs. She didn’t like him, and it was mutual and undeniable. Of course, she really didn’t think Alex liked anyone but Elijah. His relationship with Lila wasn’t close, either. More of a physical thing to bridge the gap of loneliness. He was a cold and distant person, nothing like Elijah. She wasn’t sure if he was always that way or if the death of his father and brother, and earlier in his life, his mother had something to do with it. Or perhaps his crushed dreams due to having to leave the military to take care of Elijah had done this to him.

  “Pull it together, guys,” Tristan scolded. “We’re a team. Let’s try to work like one.”

  “Wren, I’ll put you with Roman again. This time we’re actually going to need to split up. Grab anything you can find and meet back at the truck in fifteen minutes. You’re gonna have to haul ass. Don’t dawdle.”

  “Is someone going to wait with the truck again?” Abraham asked.

  He shook his head beside her and said, “Just you. We need all hands on deck. This school system is huge, lot of buildings and ground to cover.”

  “What if those things are here again?” Abraham asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Tristan answered. “Spence said they were gone.”

  “That’s the middle school over there,” Abraham pointed to the one-story, brick building. “Well, I guess what’s left of it. It connects to the elementary. The middle school is what they burned, I think.”

  “I’m going to park behind the high school. It looks like they tried to burn it, but didn’t get too far. Spence said the library was, too, but it only looks partially burned. Just be careful, guys. Some of it may not be structurally sound. Wren and Roman will search the high school. Can’t be too different from where you went. I’ll take Abraham and hit the elementary. Alex, you and Stephanie go through the middle school. Stay out of the library. Those things were in there all packed together in a den in the basement like bats or something. I doubt they’d come back, but just be careful in case.”

  That made her cringe.

  Everyone agreed as he pulled around back, putting it in 4x4 just to get through the untouched, deep snow in the parking lot. She was pretty sure they ran over a curb once. No matter, the truck seemed to handle the snow and terrain just fine.

  “Let’s head in from here,” he said after hiding their truck behind three dumpsters enclosed by a tall, brown fence. On the other side was the natural slope of a hill that would also hide it. She noticed he backed it into the space, though, for a quick retreat. “If something happens, head back here. If something happens to me, Abraham will have the spare key.”

  “Got it,” Roman stated confidently.

  “The place looks deserted. I don’t think anyone’s been here for a few days at least,” Alex added.

  “I don’t think so, either,” Tristan agree
d and got out. “Other than the ones who tried to torch it all, probably kids.”

  “Hell, I would’ve liked to have torched our school a time or two,” Stephanie remarked and got a chuckle from Tristan and Roman.

  They filed out and stood around the front of the truck a moment.

  “Fifteen minutes,” Tristan reiterated. “Make it fast. Bring anything out and just leave it here. Abraham will wait this time. He can load the truck if there’s anything to load. Grab and go. Anyone comes in and messes with you? Shoot first. Don’t even hesitate. Trust your instincts. Stay with your partner. Watch each other’s backs. If she’s digging around in drawers,” he said to Alex, “cover her and vice versa.”

  Stephanie gave a sneer that matched Alex’s. Wren was just glad she wasn’t paired up with either of them.

  “Check the nurse’s station like Roman talked about. Definitely hit the cafeterias. Find something to move the food on if you actually find any. A cart or dolly, anything that would help. Alright?” he asked everyone, to which they all nodded. “Let’s move out.”

  She jogged to the first door closest to her, one that was marked “maintenance and deliveries,” and used her pistol to bust out the small windowpane.

  “Okay, not wasting any time,” Roman said with a chuckle as she reached through and twisted the lock. The door easily pushed in next, and he said, “Good thing there’s no alarm system.”

  “Probably because the electric is down.”

  He looked up when she pointed to the exit sign that should’ve been glowing red. Roman nodded, a dark tuft of black hair falling over his forehead.

  They dashed cautiously toward the cafeteria first. The building smelled like smoke, but she didn’t see any visible signs of a fire recently.

  “Here,” he said, pushing a door open.

  It deposited them in the kitchen. They wasted no time searching. There was plenty of food, especially bulk canned items and dried products like pasta, so Roman left her for a moment to find something to transport it all.