Apokalypsis | Book 5 | Apokalypsis 5

by Morris, Kate

  “Steph, can you sit on Alex’s lap? There’s too many of us,” Roman asked.

  “Fuck no! I’ll sit on the floor or in the bed of the truck or walk the fuck home before I do that.”

  “It’s fine,” Wren volunteered and scooted over onto Alex’s lap, who also didn’t look happy about that option, either. Tristan wasn’t sure this group of ragtag allies was going to work out. Nobody seemed to like each other, and usually, when that happened, the group dynamic was brought down or completely disbanded altogether.

  The dog sat on the floor in the backseat and immediately swiveled to look out the window as if keeping watch. It seemed intense and loyal and hell, a little intimidating if he were being honest. Tristan wanted to find a dog like that for Avery. They also had to find chickens and more fuel and food. First, though, they had to get a suicided teenager out of the woods and bury her.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Elijah

  Hearing the news of Roman and Jane’s friend brought down the high of finding so many good supplies. He felt terrible that he couldn’t help with the girl or her burial. Alex, Roman, and Tristan left to take care of her, along with the guy named Noah, who seemed despondent and a little unhinged. Spencer also went, and they all carried shovels and rifles. He wasn’t sure how they were going to bury someone in frozen ground, though.

  “Elijah, please sit and rest,” Avery said, hovering as he paced.

  “Yes, Elijah, sit down,” Wren reprimanded and rose from the sofa to catch up with him.

  “I’m fine,” he said. “I just feel restless and anxious.”

  “I know, but you’re only making yourself weaker, quarterback.”

  He snorted, feeling even more worthless at the mention of his past career.

  Avery’s brother, Abraham, came into the room and asked, “Wren, did you have a chance to treat your wound?”

  “What?” Elijah asked with a bit of hysteria. “What wounds?”

  “Nothing. Just a knick, no big deal.”

  “Where?” Avery asked and approached them.

  Abraham answered for her, “She had to crawl through a window she broke out to get away from some of those crawlers. Cut her stomach or something, right, Wren?”

  “It’s fine. I’m fine. I didn’t cut it on glass. I cut it on a piece of wood. It’s fine.”

  “Well, not if you’re cut,” Avery pointed out. “The same thing happened to Jane’s father, and look how that’s going. Let’s get you cleaned up and check out that wound.”

  “No,” she said firmly.

  Avery’s left eyebrow shot up, and she replied with, “I wasn’t asking, young lady.”

  Wren’s eyes widened.

  “Sit there on the kitchen table,” Avery said. “I’ll bring the medical box.”

  She disappeared, and Wren said to him. “What the hell’s with her? She’s not in charge of us.”

  He smiled and shrugged. “Guess she’s used to corralling people around here.”

  She huffed but sat and removed her jacket and pistol holster.

  “I wish you wouldn’t go out like that,” he said, regretting that she was hurt when he wasn’t there, when he might’ve prevented it from happening. “Wait till I’m on my feet. I’d just feel better if I was with you.”

  “I don’t need your protection, Elijah,” she remarked with a furrowed dark brow.

  “Clearly not,” he said, remembering what Alex told him on the way to Avery’s home about her shooting like a military sniper out the back window of Tristan’s truck. “But we work good as a team, remember?”

  Avery returned with a wooden box that looked like some sort of antique. She began removing items and placing them on the table.

  “Lift your shirt, Wren,” she ordered softly and waited for Wren to expose a small part of her abdomen. “Ah, uh-huh, I see. Not too bad. Definitely doesn’t need stitches.”

  “See? I told you I’m fine,” Wren returned testily and attempted to pull her shirt back down.

  “Not so fast,” Avery corrected. “I’ll treat it even though it doesn’t need stitches. You could have splinters in there, or at the very least it could infect.”

  Wren scowled but pulled her shirt up again, revealing a toned, flat stomach.

  “And when I’m done, Elijah,” she said, “I’d like to look at your wounds, as well. I’m not a nurse, but I know a little, enough to make sure these injuries don’t infect.”

  He asked about Jane’s dad, and Avery explained his situation and the gruesome procedure they’d done this morning. When she was done, Elijah felt horrible for the man at the pain he must’ve endured.

  She patiently treated Wren’s cut and then his wounds, which were many, and covered them with clean gauze. Avery seemed like she wasn’t much older than him.

  “How old are you, Avery?”

  “Nineteen. Not for much longer, though. You’re seventeen?”

  “No, eighteen. I think Jane’s the only one who’s still seventeen. The rest of us are eighteen. I mean, the rest of us who were in school, seniors and all that.”

  “I feel terrible. None of you will go through commencement or go to prom or have a graduation party. You were going to play football at Ohio State, I heard?”

  He nodded, and they chatted about football, her homeschooling, her career, and the fact that some of her siblings were already in college but were technically not even high school graduates yet. It was crazy. Her family was so motivated by education, whereas his life had been so sports driven.

  It was nearly dark by the time the others finished and came back to Avery’s home. Everyone was exhausted, mentally and physically. Tristan explained that they’d held a brief ceremony of sorts after they buried her. Avery had sent a sheet to wrap her body in. The girl, Jane, had red-rimmed, bloodshot eyes, and Roman was walking with his arm around her waist as if he were partially holding her upright.

  “Hey, Angel,” Tristan said and kissed Avery on the cheek.

  “Is she okay?” she asked of Jane.

  He shook his head and sighed, “She will be. Tough kid.”

  Avery nodded as she pressed a clean bandage on Elijah’s chin that was split open from the beatings he took.

  “Is it okay if everyone eats here tonight?” he asked her and got a curious expression. “It’s just that it’s late, and I figured it might be better if we broke bread together. I left Noah to watch over her dad. I don’t think what we just did helped him out any. The kid’s a mess. Anyway, dinner?”

  “Yes, absolutely. I made a stew. There’s plenty,” she told him with a kind expression and soft eyes. “Renee made her mother’s rolls, three cookie sheets full, so we’ll have plenty.”

  “A warm, full belly makes everything a little better. You’re an angel for real,” Tristan stated softly and kissed her forehead.

  Avery wasn’t that much older than him, but to Elijah, she seemed so much wiser, and it also seemed like she was trying to hold her family together. Elijah had a lot of respect for her.

  “I’m gonna go wash up,” Tristan said with a nod and left.

  Renee was showing others where they could clean up for dinner, and soon, it was just Wren in the room with him.

  “Hey, you okay?” he asked and touched her elbow, to which she jumped.

  “Yeah,” she replied quickly and moved her arm away as Dixie finally laid at her feet. The dog was as antsy as her.

  “How’d it go today?”

  “Fine,” she answered curtly and stared at the fire crackling in the raised metal fireplace.

  “Are you in pain? I can give you one of my pills,” he offered and got a shake of her head as Alex walked in from outside.

  His brother walked over to them and said, “Let’s talk in the other room.”

  They walked around the brick wall that held the fireplace and into the glass atrium.

  The parrot squawked loudly, causing Wren to jump again, and said, “Stranger danger, stranger danger.”

  Alex ignored the big gray bird
and said, “This shit’s weird.”

  “What is?” Elijah asked.

  “The dead girl. I looked all around for the knife that girl would’ve used,” he started, and his eyes darted to the other rooms where some of the others were gathering again. “It don’t add up. I looked on the ground, on her person, all over that area.”

  “So? It’s probably lost in the snow.” Elijah shot him a confused look.

  Alex whisper-spoke fiercely, “That’s what I’m saying, E! I couldn’t find it. When the others were digging the grave in the field, I snuck back and got on my hands and knees to look for the knife. I still didn’t find it. No knife, no razor blade, nothing.”

  “What are you getting at?” Wren asked. “You don’t think she killed herself?”

  He frowned. “No, I don’t know. Maybe. I looked at her hands and the wounds before we bound her up in that sheet. It sure looked like she did it herself, but there were other things about it that seemed…off.”

  His brother looked exhausted. “Dude, you’re just tired.”

  “Did you say anything to the others?” Wren asked instead.

  Alex shook his head. “No, it would probably sound crazy or paranoid. I don’t know what to think about it.”

  “Let’s keep it between us for now.”

  “I agree,” Alex said as Renee approached the room and knocked before opening the door just a crack.

  “Ready for dinner?”

  “Yeah, we’re coming,” Alex said.

  Elijah tried to sit next to Wren, but he got separated in the crowd from her and ended up next to Jane on one side and Alex on the other. It took a few minutes to get everyone settled in before the meal began, which was fantastic and the first thing he’d eaten that tasted so good since everything fell apart. Jane was barely touching her food, which concerned him because she was just a slip of a girl.

  Avery said, “We’re all very sorry for your loss, Roman and Jane. I think I can speak for everyone at this table that we’ve all been through this. But, nonetheless, we’re truly sorry, and it never gets any easier. And for you, as well, Wren.”

  Wren only offered a nod, and Roman answered for his group, which was just him, Jane, and his little brother since they left Noah, and Stephanie, as well, to watch her father.

  Tristan said, “I think we need to work on preventing further loss.”

  “I agree,” Spencer said. “We need our group to hold its numbers so that we can fight this out together.”

  “First things first is going to be communication,” Tristan said. “It was great today that the cell phones worked, but we all know they aren’t that reliable.”

  “What about walkie-talkies?” Renee asked.

  Alex answered, “Those are good when we’re out getting stuff and need to communicate with each other…”

  “Woulda’ helped today,” Abraham said quietly. Her little brother was tall, broad-shouldered, and reserved. He didn’t say much most of the time, but he was definitely thinking at all times because Elijah had seen it in his eyes, that pensive side.

  “Yeah, sure would have,” Tristan agreed. “I don’t think walkie-talkies are gonna’ get it out here on our separate properties, though. We’re too far apart and have too many hills between us.”

  “If not cell phones or walkie-talkies, what then?” Wren asked.

  “Radios,” Spencer said. “I know we had one on the base. It was a dinosaur compared to what we were used to with satellite uplinks and global positioning, but every base had one in case the grid went down.”

  “I never saw it,” Tristan said.

  “It was in a supply closet behind the L.T.’s office. Damn, I mean, I didn’t think of it at the time when you guys went back to raid the base for weapons, or I would’ve mentioned it.”

  “It’s okay,” Tristan acknowledged.

  Elijah said, “One radio isn’t going to get it. We’d each need one.”

  “True,” Avery agreed with a nod and passed the basket of rolls to Alex.

  Suddenly, a low rumble became louder and louder until it was clear that a large plane was flying over the house. Then it was followed by six more.

  “What was that all about?” Avery asked Tristan.

  He shook his head, “Not sure. Could’ve been military. Probably military, actually. Sounded like C-130s.”

  “What about the temporary bases?” Spencer suggested. “Maybe they’d have a spare radio we could trade for.”

  “That’s a possibility,” Tristan said.

  “You were working with some of the men at the rations center in Canton,” Avery reminded him. “Perhaps you could go back up there…”

  He shook his head to cut her off. “No, Ave. That’s done. They were reassigned to the temporary new base, one of the blue zones. Nobody’s up there anymore. Besides, I think they were going to torch it all once it was vacated.”

  “They were already doing that in our town,” Elijah said. “Burning and all that. Cops were driving them into certain areas where they could round them up and haul them away.”

  Roman added, “Same in ours. One of the last messages we got from the news was that people should go to the evacuation camps. The temporary place that was handing out rations was abandoned. Nothing was there but the tents. I assume they were all moved to the new bases. Jane’s dad said not to ever go to one of those.”

  “I’d have to agree with that,” Tristan said. “Let’s start taking the right steps in order to ride this thing out here. I don’t want to see any of us losing anyone else or getting split up.”

  “Agreed,” Roman said, and Alex nodded.

  Elijah was quiet because the way things were going already since he and his brother and Wren came to this area, he didn’t feel too optimistic. All he wanted was to keep his brother and Wren safe, but so far, he was failing at even just keeping himself safe.

  “The first thing we need to figure out for security is communication, like we talked about yesterday,” Renee put in. “I was thinking about it last night when Spence and I went up to the apartment,” she said and looked around the table, “I can see your farmhouse from up there, Alex. Maybe if we could use a code with flashlights or something for now, that might work. Like something for safety at night and something for trouble.”

  “Yes, like two flashes for safe and three for trouble,” Avery added.

  Her sister Kaia, who looked nothing like her, said, “’Cept if it’s not when someone’s looking. Like a middle of the night attack or some scheisse.”

  Avery sent her an impatient look but nodded anyway. “That’s very true. We could have a signal at say ten or eleven at night, but Kaia’s right. If we get attacked, that wouldn’t work.”

  “I think the radios are going to be imperative,” Tristan said. “And the signals would only work for us. Roman’s place is not even able to be seen by any of us.”

  Roman stepped in to say, “I could go to the edge of our property and signal across the field. Maybe Alex and Elijah would see it.”

  Tristan shook his head, “No, I don’t think that’s a good idea…”

  “Me, neither,” Jane said in a panicked tone and stared at Roman. “You’d have to go out after dark, and those things could be out there, and it would be dangerous, Roman, and you could be hurt or overrun or sneaked up on or…”

  “Hey, it’s okay,” he cut off her long, desperate statement and placed a hand over hers on the table and wrapped his other free arm around her back. “That’s not going to happen. It’s okay. Don’t worry. I won’t do it. We’ll figure this out.”

  She sniffed quietly and nodded. Then he spoke to her too softly for anyone to hear right up against the side of her face.

  “What about CB radios like truckers use?” Abraham asked. “I don’t think they’re meant for long-range work, but we’re all relatively close by.”

  Tristan said, “I’m not familiar with them. Are you?”

  Avery broke in to praise her brother, “There’s not much that Abraham can’t fi
gure out. Trust me.”

  He offered up a shy, crooked grin and said, “I don’t think they’d be too difficult to figure out. Most radios work in similar manners. I know that HAM radios are more difficult to learn how to operate, but I think the CB would be slightly less complicated.”

  “Wait,” Wren interrupted. “If we’re talking to each other on these devices and can hear each other, wouldn’t that mean other people could hear us, too?”

  “Yes, maybe,” Abraham said. “If they were on the same channel.”

  Wren argued, “Well, they might be able to figure out where we are. Tristan said that people are going to be coming further out into our area as this gets worse.”

  “As long as we don’t give away our location, we should be fine,” Spencer said, but Elijah noticed that Tristan was quiet.

  Finally, he added, “I’ll see what I can learn about them. Until we’d know for sure, we’d just have to be really careful about using them, careful about what we say, what we could give away. Good point, Wren.”

  She only looked away and then at Elijah, who tried to smile, but his face hurt too much to do so.

  “Tomorrow first thing,” Tristan started, “I want to get after it. We need to find more livestock, chickens or whatever, and I think Roman should take a few people and see if you can’t shoot a deer. Or a turkey. Whatever you can find.”

  “Yes, sir,” Roman stated. “I’ll do that, no problem.”

  “We have four ATV’s if you want to use them, Roman,” Tristan offered and inclined his head toward the entry door. “Up in the barn. They were Renee’s family’s.”

  “That’d be great, depending on where I need to go or how far to find a deer.”

  “Anyone else have ATV’s or anything like that?” Spencer asked. “They use less gas. Might be something we try to acquire more of along with the coms.”

  “No, but on the horse farm where Jane used to work, there were ATV’s and stuff,” Roman offered. “Technically, they’d belong to Noah now, so I’m sure he wouldn’t care if we went back to town to get them.”

  Tristan’s mouth turned down. “Yeah, but that’s using a lot of gas to get there.”

  “True,” Roman agreed. “I had a friend who owned a lot of stuff like that. I know he’s gone. He and his dad took off for Michigan.” Jane gave him a curious look. “Terry Ramseyer? Lived out in the country more. Remember, his dad had boats and all kinds of stuff in the barn. Horses, too. We were at that party…”