Apokalypsis | Book 5 | Apokalypsis 5

by Morris, Kate

“We got separated,” she told him.

  “Damnit!” he swore and started forward. “Where’d you get separated?”

  “In the admin’s offices. We got cornered. I went one way. He went the other.”

  “Lead the way,” Tristan said and waited for her to pass him as she sprinted the length of the gym and into a different hallway than where he’d come in.

  “This way,” she whispered, her voice even more muffled behind her mask, the same kind they were all wearing. “Over here.”

  The gym wasn’t that far from the offices, and once they got there, Tristan took the lead again. They passed the principal’s office, his secretary’s desk, and two other administrative offices. When they rounded the first corner, he saw a trail of blood.

  “This is the dead-end they caught us in,” she whispered.

  He nodded and stalked forward down the narrow corridor.

  “I dropped our bag up ahead,” she said. “That’s where we got separated. Roman went that way.”

  She pointed toward another hallway, so Tristan stalked in that direction while she ran over and picked up a bag marked with the school’s logo and mascot of an American Indian with full tribal headdress of long feathers like a chief would’ve worn.

  “Let me get that,” Alex offered, and she handed it off. Her eyes were wary of him, though, which made Tristan wonder if there was something between them, bad blood or something.

  Another gunshot came from somewhere ahead, so he picked up the pace. He wasn’t stupid. He knew he’d left Abraham behind. He’d done it on purpose, too. He didn’t want her brother to get killed and felt it would be safer if he waited outside the gym with the cement block walls.

  At the end of the hall was a door, another dead end, so he opened it carefully and proceeded slowly. He saw another blood trail and quickly noticed the body of what was probably a night crawler nearby by the bloodshot, pale eyes. Another round went off further down a different hall, so Tristan jogged this time.

  Arriving at the end of the hall, he realized it opened up into a large two-story study room of some kind, probably a good two thousand square feet with computers and desks, cubbies, and little nooks where kids could work. He spotted Roman in an instant. Two of them were after him as he climbed the spiral staircase at the other end of the long room in an attempt to lose them.

  Tristan took steady aim and fired at one. He missed, but it drew their attention. They ran pell-mell toward them. Stephanie drew up, but Alex stayed her arm. Wren raised her pistol and killed one with a headshot, and Tristan took out the other with a chest wound center mass. Neither got up again.

  Roman waved and dashed over to them. “Wow, thanks. That was getting kinda’ hairy. I couldn’t even get a second to change out mags.”

  “No problem. This is what we do. We protect one another,” he assured him as he immediately turned and headed toward Abraham again. They found him where Tristan had told him to wait. “Don’t get separated,” he reprimanded the other two. “I told you not to separate.”

  “We didn’t have a choice,” Roman said.

  “Yeah,” Wren started in that odd accent. “I had to shoot out a window and climb through it to get away from one.”

  “Are you okay?” he asked, noticing that the hem of her shirt sticking out from under her jacket was torn. “Did you get cut?”

  “No, I’m fine.”

  “You sure? Looks like you’re cut,” he observed and pointed at her stomach where a sliver was showing through the tear and blood was staining the material.

  “I said I’m fine,” she said more forcefully.

  “Alright. We’ll deal with it later,” he said with a frown of concern. “What happened?”

  Roman explained, “We think they were hiding in the admin offices because there wasn’t much light in there. Probably slept in there during the day.”

  “Hm, interesting,” he said. “Spencer said the place was emptied out of them when he came for fuel. Guess some came back. We’ll have to be more careful of that. What did everyone find? Anything good?”

  “These bags are full of medical supplies,” Roman pointed. “And we took a ton of food out back to be loaded.”

  “We got some of that, too,” Alex remarked. “But we left it over in the school when we heard the shooting.”

  “Any meds?”

  Alex shook his head.

  “I found a little, but no food,” Tristan told them. “Meds, rags, some tools in the maintenance department. Plenty of books if anyone wants any.”

  “Pass,” Stephanie remarked with sarcasm. “I think I’m done with school.”

  “Ditto,” Abraham agreed with a smile that she didn’t return.

  “What do you mean?” Tristan asked him. “Man, you were already in college.”

  “What a dork,” Stephanie said and blew air through her nose.

  “Some people actually use their brain cells instead of frying them with dope,” Alex stated.

  “Hey, guys,” Tristan said, feeling like a damn babysitter. “Let’s get along, okay? No time for this shit. Let’s get this all loaded and get out of here before the gunshots bring people here. Alex, you take Abraham and get the stuff you found.”

  “Got it.”

  “Right,” Roman agreed and looked at Abraham, who seemed hurt by Stephanie’s comments. However, her little brother ran off with Alex to do Tristan’s bidding. Then Roman turned to Tristan, “I’ll get up in the bed if you want to hand stuff up.”

  “Yeah, sure,” he agreed. He turned and said to the others, “Keep an eye out. Stephanie, you can help me hand things up to Roman to stack.”

  “Think anymore of those things are still in this building?” Stephanie asked with a shiver and looked around.

  “I doubt it,” Tristan said. “I think the noise of the gunfire would’ve drawn them out. Let’s be careful just in case.”

  Within a half hour they had the truck loaded so full they had to use ropes and bungee straps to hold it all in. Then they were ready to go again.

  “I think we should head out, go home, and unload everything. It’s lunchtime. I’ll try to call Ave and see if there’s some food she could put together for us all,” he said as he turned out of the parking lot. “After lunch, we’ll have about four hours till dark. We could drive around the area closer to our places and see if we can find some chickens or any other livestock.”

  “We’ve got a horse trailer,” Stephanie offered. “Roman’s girlfriend worked at some fancy horse place. That’s where Noah’s from, too.”

  “Was he her boss? You mean Jane?”

  “Uh-huh, Jane. But no, Noah was her boss’s grandson,” Roman answered this time and rolled his eyes.

  “What’s that mean?” Tristan asked, picking up on something. “Don’t like him?”

  “He’s just not real reliable, especially not lately. He’s kinda’ like pulling dead weight.”

  “I called him a puss, and you got all bitchy about it,” Stephanie pointed out. “He is. He’s worthless.”

  “Nobody’s worthless,” Abraham said quietly.

  “Yeah, Crack Barbie,” Alex said. “They’re still keeping you around.”

  “Fuck off, asshole,” she returned without hesitation. “And I don’t smoke crack.”

  “I noticed some military-grade guns and ammo in that load of weapons your uncle had hidden, Wren,” Tristan said, trying to change the subject and, at the same time, trying to catch her off balance.

  “What?” she asked quietly and with suspicion.

  “Serial numbers, some scratched off. Military ones. And high-grade stuff. What’s with that? Was he in the military?”

  “I guess,” she answered evasively.

  “Here in the U.S.? I mean, you don’t sound like you’re American. No offense. I just like to know who’s on my team.”

  “Jamie provided us with weapons and ammo. That’s all you need to know.”

  She was not making him feel any more comfortable with the situation with an answe
r like that. Or the attitude to go with it. Tristan knew she was hiding something, but what? Wasn’t the world bad enough now? There was no sense in secrets anymore. And he really didn’t like not knowing the people who were coming around their property. He would have to get to the bottom of the situation and soon.

  Instead of pressing her right now, he dialed Avery and got her on the first try. However, she was crying. She wouldn’t want him to know that, but he could tell. Although they’d only known each other a short time, he knew her like the back of his hand now. And she and her siblings were what got him out of bed in the morning and what kept him up late into the night with worry. He listened patiently as she explained the situation at home.

  “Angel, I’ll be home soon. We’re only ten minutes away.”

  When he hung up, he had to explain the mess at Jane’s to everyone in the truck, and a silence soon fell over them.

  Then Stephanie said, “That’s why you don’t get close to anyone now. Fuck people. Look out for yourself and only yourself.”

  Alex snorted. “Isn’t that the mantra you’ve always lived by?”

  She laughed. “I’m still here, aren’t I?”

  “Whatever, Crack Barbie.”

  “Roman, we’re going to need to get her out of the woods. If you’re not up for it,” he said, referring to the girl. He paused before offering, “I’ll understand. Maybe Alex…”

  The boy next to him stalled, his jaw ticking. He was a boy, just a teenager, but Roman was quickly becoming a man in just the short week he’d known him. This was all changing them, every one of them. There was no time for babying anyone now, no tender feelings guarded, nor truths hidden to protect the innocent.

  “No, it’s fine. I’ll help. Destiny was my friend, a good friend. I want to help. I’m just sorry I wasn’t there for her the last few days.”

  “It wouldn’t have mattered. When someone decides to do that, they just do,” Wren told him. “There’s nothing you could’ve done. Her mind was made up.”

  Roman explained to them, “Her dad and little twin brothers were infected and died. Then with her mom the other day and Brian, who was her boyfriend, I think she just felt like there wasn’t anyone left.”

  “Most of us don’t have many people left in our lives,” Wren said.

  “You’ve got my brother,” Alex pointed out as if he were irritated by her response.

  She fell silent again and looked out the front window. Tristan wanted to know more about this girl. Where were her parents? Why had she lived with just her uncle? How’d she come to know Elijah and Alex and ended up with them on their uncle’s farm? He would ask Alex or Elijah another time.

  “Tristan!” Abraham yelled. “Look out!”

  A cargo truck with the label for a shipping company on the side of it zoomed past them, nearly running them off the road in the process. The other truck sped right down the center, not even trying to go slow or stay in their lane at all. Tristan had to use the soft shoulder and almost lost control. Once they were past them, he resumed their trip, fearful of getting stuck or losing their bounty. Luckily, with the 4x4 unit engaged, the truck dug itself up out of nearly being in the ditch.

  “Assholes,” Alex swore in the backseat.

  A moment later, two more vehicles sped past them, again not sharing the road. However, this time, there was ample room to scoot over as an intersection was available.

  “Turn here, Tristan,” Abraham said. “We’ll take this road. I don’t like that those people were acting like that.”

  “Good call, bro’,” he said. “I think they were chasing that truck.”

  “Me, too,” Alex agreed.

  The rest of the way home was going to be back roads that hadn’t seen a plow truck or even traffic. He went slow, lost the feel for where the road actually was a few times, and eventually made it to the next intersection where he paused, which seemed silly since nobody was around for miles.

  “See?” Abraham said. “This is the road that’ll take you to ours.”

  “Right,” he said, having come this way once from his nightly rounds of checking on the oil well sites. Also, from taking a patrol past Avery Andersson’s home because he’d been obsessed with her. Still was.

  “Mind if we pick up Elijah?” Alex asked. “I don’t really want him home by himself all day. Poor kid got the shit beat outta’ him, and he probably shouldn’t be alone.”

  “Yeah, sure,” Tristan said. “Probably not a good idea for him to be there if he’s asleep anyway.”

  “He’s got the dog,” Wren said as if that were enough.

  “Yeah, but…”

  “Hey-hey-hey,” Alex alerted him loudly from the backseat on the other side of the truck. “What’s this dude doing?”

  “That looks like one of the trucks that passed us,” Wren remarked in a rush and twisted in her seat beside him.

  The bright red, jacked-up pickup truck sat there at the end of someone’s driveway idling.

  “Maybe,” Tristan, narrowing of his eyes.

  “He’s not moving,” Wren said and removed her pistol from her shoulder holster.

  “Easy,” Tristan warned softly. “Let’s just keep moving, see if he goes the other way.”

  He pulled slowly through the intersection and kept steady pressure on the gas to get up the steep hill. He felt the gravel grip under the tires at the top and remembered this was all gravel roads out this way, just like Avery’s. They weren’t far from home. The road leveled off for a bit before winding down around again and going right back up. This whole county was like that, very hilly, some pretty steep, and full of sharp bends and turns.

  “Hey, man,” Stephanie said. “That fucker’s still back there. He’s following us now.”

  “Okay, take it easy,” he said.

  “He’s definitely following us,” Alex agreed with her.

  “I’ll try to lose him,” Tristan said and sped up. It wasn’t safe to go more than thirty-five on the unplowed roads. Avery told him that a lot of the roads out this way weren’t plowed all that great before the pandemic, either. Plow trucks threw down a mix of salt, ash, and gravel down the middle of the township roads. The county roads were slightly better managed and maintained. This was not one of those, nor was it a state route. It didn’t matter, though. No road crews were working anymore.

  He rounded a bend too quickly and felt the tires slip beneath him before he got control again.

  “Damnit,” he cursed under his breath, worried the truck wouldn’t climb the hill since it had lost momentum. It was struggling, losing traction, and he had to coax it slowly. Finally, it came to a halt halfway up the hill. Tristan was forced to put it in reverse and let it carefully inch back down to the bottom. He had to get a run at it.

  “They’re still coming!” Stephanie announced in a panic that wasn’t helping. Tristan saw the truck crest the top of the last hill behind them. “What do they want?”

  “Anything we’ve got,” Abraham said quietly.

  “To hell with this!” Wren announced and literally climbed over the seat. “Can I use the rifle under the backseat?”

  Tristan said, “Yeah, but do you…”

  “I’ve got it. You get us outta’ here. I’ll push them back.”

  Stephanie blurted, “What the f…”

  “Get down,” Wren demanded loudly, her accent on full display now. “Out of my way!”

  The next thing Tristan knew, Wren was rolling the back window down and had fired off a series of fully automatic rounds at the red truck. He could hear them plinking off the metal.

  “Jesus!” Alex yelled.

  Wren was just as loud, “You want him to follow us home to the farm? Find Elijah? Find those kids?”

  Maybe there was something to this girl, something more than cold stares and off-putting personality traits. She wasn’t afraid for herself. She was worried about Elijah and the kids right now, which seemed out of character for what he’d seen in her so far.

  “They’re shooting ba
ck!” Stephanie screamed behind him. Tristan assumed she was crouched on the floor behind his seat.

  “Again, Wren!” Abraham yelled as Tristan got the momentum of the truck moving at a faster pace up the hill. He was careful to avoid the ruts he’d already made.

  Roman rolled down his window next to him in the front seat and fired off some rounds from his pistol. A returned round hit the truck somewhere, a metal clanking sound he was all too familiar with and one that brought back a lot of bad memories.

  Then he watched in the rearview mirror as Wren narrowed in on her target and squeezed off a longer burst, then two, single rounds that went through the front windshield of the red truck. Roman fired two more times as the other vehicle drew into the bottom of the ravine. It careened into a hill near the road, jerked back onto it, slid and flipped onto its roof.

  “Get us outta’ here!” Wren called out as two men climbed out of the window of the driver’s side.

  “On it,” Tristan returned as she popped off more rounds. When she pulled the trigger a final time, the hammer struck home. Not deterred, she whipped out her pistol and returned fire as they chased on foot. Roman fired two more times.

  “You got him!” Roman cried out to her and changed mags.

  “One more,” she said.

  There would be no time, though, as Tristan crested the hill with the truck and brought them out onto flatter terrain again. Then he sped away, leaving the men on foot.

  “Good shooting, Wren,” Roman praised as she returned to the front seat.

  “You hit their steer tire,” she replied. “That’s what caused them to wreck.”

  “Heck, I was just trying to hit anything,” he admitted.

  “Well, then stick to that technique,” she said blandly and got a chuckle from himself and Alex.

  “Safeties back on,” Tristan told them.

  He breathed a sigh of relief when they made it to Alex’s driveway. They picked up Elijah, who hurried out and hugged Wren. She immediately pulled back.

  “Is it okay if our dog comes? She was freaking out ‘cuz Wren left,” he asked Tristan.

  “Sure, wouldn’t hurt anything. Probably help,” he admitted.

  “Thanks,” he returned and winced as he got in.