Apokalypsis | Book 5 | Apokalypsis 5

by Morris, Kate

  “We have plenty of time to get to know her and whatever the hell happened to her.”

  Alex broke in to say, “I think we should go back out. Just the two of us. Leave the girls here to deal with that girl. Not like we’re gonna be able to help with that situation anyways.”

  “But the weather,” Avery said, looking past them out the entry doors.

  Tristan weighed it out. They needed supplies, food, chickens, anything they could find at this point. Their large group was growing, and their new allies needed help from them, too.

  “Let’s go,” he said to Alex, who nodded.

  “Gonna take a whizz,” he said. “Meet ya’ out there.”

  “Tristan!” Avery scolded after Alex left them. “I don’t think you should go.”

  He sighed and cupped her soft cheek. “Angel, we’ll be fine. Two Army grunts working together will make it all go faster anyway.”

  “But the weather. And those things,” she worried.

  “Make me some dinner?” he asked, trying to change the topic and give her something else to think about. He even offered up a grin.

  Avery puffed air through her nose and frowned in an adorable way. “Alright. What do you want?”

  “Hm, what do I want?” he asked and snaked an arm around her lower back. “Now, that’s an interesting question, Angel.”

  “Tristan,” she warned.

  “Anything you make,” he amended. “And dessert later.”

  She grinned and hugged him hard. “Come home safe.”

  “Maybe keep the kids away from that girl for a while. She could be sick and not showing symptoms yet if she was around girls who were. And you and Kai wash up really good.”

  She nodded against his chest.

  He kissed the top of her head and left for the truck again without a backward glance. Getting his head all messed up before leaving was not a smart idea.

  They made it out the drive again but had to manually close the gate since the snow had drifted around the base too deeply for the mechanism to function correctly. Then they were off.

  “Damn snow,” Alex remarked.

  “Where’d you go through basic?”

  “Fort Benning. You?”

  “Leonard Wood,” he answered.

  “Your unit?”

  That question was always harder to answer. “Special Ops,” he said and left it at that.

  “Yeah, wished I could’ve done the same,” Alex explained and then told him how he had to come home after their father died so that he could be the legal guardian of Elijah. Then he bragged up his little brother’s football career, which was actually really impressive.

  “I hope this all ends soon so that Elijah can still play ball,” Alex lamented.

  Tristan said, “Yeah, man. This isn’t good. I don’t know how much longer it’ll go. I think we may be in real trouble. The base I was at closed. The government sent troops in to clean it out, take everything to one of those camps. That’s not a good sign. Tells me they weren’t prepared for anything like this.”

  “’Cuz we’re too busy trying to help all these other shithole countries all the time.”

  “Probably true,” he agreed.

  “I hope there’s an update tonight. Haven’t heard one in over a week.”

  “Yeah, maybe we’ll get reception and can watch the television. You guys got t.v. down there?”

  “Satellite, so it’s sketchy as fuck anyway.”

  “You can watch at our house,” he offered. “I’ll drive you guys home later.”

  “That’d be good. I hope they’ve got some good news for us.”

  “If they have any at all,” he said. “Last we heard was that tens of millions were dead and they were telling people to go to the quarantine zones, blue zones or some shit.”

  “Yeah, same,” Alex agreed. “Ain’t right, man.”

  “You guys just got here,” Tristan said, knowing that Jane and her father came sooner to the area. “What else have you heard? Could be something we haven’t.”

  “Just the same shit. They’re evacuating a lot of the cities. Were doing some of that up in our area, too. Burning ‘em down, man. Stupid crazy.”

  “Yeah,” Tristan said, unsure if it was crazy or not. What else were they going to do? The infected were beginning to outnumber the healthy in some places. He saw a lot of that when Avery was in the hospital. Sometimes when he left after dark to return to her family’s house, they were all over the city. He’d hit a few with the truck. They knew no fear. They were the most dangerous adversary he’d ever fought, and he’d fought plenty. When the enemy felt no fear of dying, no concern for self-preservation, they were at their optimum dangerous level. He knew firsthand because he used to be that way, too. He wasn’t anymore. Avery had changed that within him. Now he felt a need to stay alive if for no other reason than to keep her and her siblings alive and safe.

  “What the fuck you think happened to that girl?” Alex asked as they climbed the hill that would lead them to the main road again.

  Tristan sent him a knowing look.

  “Yeah, I figure that, too.”

  And now this girl. She was another mouth to feed, but what choice did they have? She needed them. Whatever did happen to her, she was a long way from recovery. She was emaciated, every bone in her chest and shoulders showing easily. He’d spotted a busted lip, too. Which meant she’d been beaten, tortured, and abused, kind of like Elijah and also Wren’s uncle. Only, this girl was likely repeatedly raped, too. The world was so messed up. Why were people doing things like that? He’d been in enough hell hole countries during his service to the Army, but this was different. These people, these vulture-like vampires had come out of the woodwork as if they’d been waiting for this opportunity their whole lives. That girl could be Kaia or Avery, or hell, Ephraim or little Finn. It made his heart sink a little lower into his stomach at the thought. He had to keep them safe.

  “Think the others are having any better luck? The hunting party?” Alex asked.

  “Hope so. That Roman kid seems to know what he’s doing.”

  “Yeah, I could go for a piece of backstrap.”

  Alex reached over and bumped his fist against his own.

  Tristan added glumly, “They have to be doing better than us.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Wren

  Her head hurt, her leg was trapped, and Dixie was going nuts barking and growling. Wren’s vision was slightly blurred, which made it hard to orient herself. Her brain was also foggy, which meant she probably got knocked pretty hard.

  “Get back, Dixie!” she heard Roman yell. Then she heard gunshots.

  What the hell happened? Something had hit them. One of those things. She groaned and tried to sit up but didn’t get all the way upright from her position. Looking around, Wren realized she was lying in the snow, a tree beside her.

  The ATV had skidded and rolled down a hill. Wren wasn’t sure, but she thought maybe her head was bleeding because her right eye was stinging badly when she blinked and her vision was fading in and out. She blinked rapidly to try and clear it, then rubbed at it and came away with blood on her glove.

  “Wren!” Jane was yelling. “Wren, are you okay?”

  She opened both eyes a little wider and tried to sit up further but couldn’t. Someone was groaning with exertion.

  “Pull her out, Jane!” Roman yelled. “Now. Hurry. This is heavier than I thought.”

  She felt the girl’s hands under her armpits and figured she ought to dust off and help her out. Wren dug her heels into the ground beneath her and pushed as hard as she could. The ATV was on its side, and her leg was trapped under it. The tree was on her other side, and she was pinned between the two. Jane was stronger than she looked, though, and she tugged her free. Someone else was groaning, too, which turned out to be Roman, who had lifted the ATV to free her. He let it fall back into place once she was clear.

  “Can you sit up?” Jane asked, to which she nodded and scooted some more as
the girl kneeled beside her and dug around in her backpack. “Here, hold this on your forehead. You have a cut.”

  “I’m good. I got it,” she said and used the handlebar to leverage herself to her feet. Things cleared quickly as soon as she stood, and she felt a lot better being able to survey the situation. Dixie licked her hand. “Good girl.”

  “Spencer!” Jane exclaimed and rushed away.

  Wren looked around quickly. The dead deer was halfway up the steep hill that wasn’t that long but steep just the same. It was probably no more than a twenty-foot drop. How they avoided all of the trees, she had no idea. They’d hit the one open patch of land, and she could see their skid marks clearly, the white snow there now a long, muddy streak.

  She jerked her head right and left to look for that thing. It was dead. Apparently, someone in their group had shot it. She stumbled, her leg sore from being pinned under the heavy machine. However, Jamie had not raised her to be a baby, so she gritted her teeth and hobbled. The more she moved, the less stiff it felt.

  Wren grabbed her gun, which was lying close by in the snow, and joined the others a few yards away behind a large tree.

  “Aighh,” Spencer cried out in pain.

  “What happened? What’s wrong?” Wren asked them.

  “His arm,” Roman said. “It’s broken.”

  “We need to get out of here,” Spencer said through his clenched jaw. “There will be more. We’re sitting ducks, and they’ll have heard that shot.”

  “He’s right,” Wren said as she spun around to look for her pack. Spotting it nearby, she walked over with a little more strength this time and grabbed it.

  “We’ve only got the one ATV now,” Jane pointed out the obvious. “What do we do?”

  “Spencer needs to be transported on one. Ours is still up on the road,” he said.

  “No, send the girls,” Spencer argued.

  Wren jumped in to say, “I’m fine. Send Jane with Spencer.”

  “What? You were hurt!” Jane exclaimed dramatically.

  Wren rolled her eyes. “I’m fine. Nothing broken. Go. Get him out of here before more come.”

  “Come on, Jane,” Roman said, taking her arm and leading her up the hill.

  “Need help?” Wren asked Spencer.

  “Hand up?” he asked and extended his to her.

  She helped him get to his feet, but he seemed to manage other than that.

  “Where’s it broken?”

  He pointed with his uninjured hand, “Here.”

  Spencer was indicating his forearm and wrist area.

  “Let’s sling it,” she said and whipped off her backpack again. She had an extra thermal shirt in it just in case. She had a lot of just-in-case items in there. “Here. Hold still.”

  Wren took the sleeves and tied them around his neck and wrapped the torso portion of the shirt under his elbow. She didn’t have much more time for anything else.

  “Thanks,” he said with appreciation.

  “We don’t have your ass out of this ravine yet,” she remarked and marched up the hill. Toward the top, Wren had to help him. Now that she was up higher, she could see that it was more of a drop-off and then a sloping hill.

  Roman and Jane were back on the road, and he was showing her the basics of the ATV.

  “Careful of the curves with this snow,” he warned. “You’re not far from home. Just go slow.”

  “Can you hold a gun?” Wren asked Spencer.

  “Help me get it out of my holster?”

  She nodded and pulled it free from his hip. Then she checked it to make sure there was a round in the chamber and the safety was off.

  “Be careful,” Roman was telling Jane, who looked worried. “We’re right behind you, okay?”

  She nodded, and he kissed her cheek quickly with a worried expression. Then they pulled away, and it was just her and Roman.

  “You sure you can do this?” he asked as the others disappeared from sight.

  “Is there a choice?”

  He grimaced. “Yeah, guess not. You can wait here.”

  “For what?”

  “I’m not leaving that deer down there for those things.”

  She nodded in agreement with that decision and followed him back down. The hill was becoming more and more slippery as they tracked it up with footprints. She slid quite a few times, and so did Roman.

  After helping him get the deer settled on his shoulders, Wren looked around for anything else they lost and spotted Spencer’s rifle. It was muddy, definitely needed to be cleaned, but nothing on it was damaged. She slung it around her back and gave Roman a nod because anything else was getting left behind, including the ATV, until they had help, at least. They’d also have to wait until this snow melted. She didn’t want to hang out in this area any longer than necessary.

  At the top, she had to stand with one arm around a tree and extend her other to help him and his load up over the brim. Then they were ready to make the dangerous trek home. Not her home. Not even her new temporary home. Just to Jane’s house.

  Wren held no hope in her heart that this was anything but temporary. The loss of Jamie rammed that home. There would never be a permanent home for her again. Even when this virus ran its course, and the world returned to normal someday, she would never have a permanent home or a simple life. She’d foolishly thought of Elijah’s home that way for the short time she lived there. Then Lila died. Then Hope. Then things declined until they had to leave. Now Jamie. Her life had barely been stable before all of this with Jamie in it. The instability of security in her life was at an all-time high. People and home were both things that would eventually go away, and she didn’t want to keep dealing with those feelings of loss, so it was better to keep her distance and not figure on setting down any sort of permanent roots anywhere. Not with a house, not with things, not with people. Definitely not with people.

  After she helped Roman to the top of the drop-off, she picked up Spencer’s rifle again and hers and trudged through the snow on the road. Dixie padded along silently beside her on the outside toward the woods along the road. It concerned her that it was so overcast and gray out with the snowfall. It felt more like dusk than mid-day. She couldn’t figure out why those things only liked the dark, why they only ran around at night or when it was like this, and where they all went during the day. The snow and the dreary atmosphere made her miserable and desperate for her Australia, but getting back there was not a possibility, not even before this started. However, that didn’t mean she had to love the fact that her toes were so cold she couldn’t imagine frostbite being much worse.

  “Where do you think they go during the day?” she asked Roman.

  “Not sure, definitely somewhere. They’re definitely nocturnal for some reason.”

  “I know, but where do they go?”

  They were both quiet a few moments, each probably considering that.

  “If we knew where a lot of them were hiding in this area, if they’re clustering together, we could…do something, ya’ know?” he asked unsurely.

  “Do something?”

  “Yeah, maybe take them out,” he said with a grimace. “Man, that sounded terrible.”

  They lapsed into silence again until Wren broke it, “No, you’re right. There’s no cure. These things are everywhere. I don’t even know where those ones earlier came from, how they got here so far out from the populated cities.”

  “I know. That’s what I was thinking,” he said, hiking up the deer onto his shoulders again when it drooped. His clothing was bloody from it, which was disgusting. They were both wet and filthy from the mud, too. “I would never advocate just killing a bunch of people. I mean, I’m not like that.”

  She shrugged. “I think we all better be like that now. The military, well, all of the militaries around the world are killing them, even if they say they’re not. Survival of the fittest and all.”

  She went on to explain what she and Elijah had seen on the train car and what they suspected t
hey were going to do with them when they got to their destination.

  “Maybe,” he said quietly. “It’s just hard to remember that they’re still humans, ya’ know?”

  Wren didn’t want to think of them that way. It would make it harder to kill them when she needed to. Instead, she redirected their conversation back to their daylight concealment.

  “Think they’re hiding out in barns or something?”

  He slipped once and got his footing again as they climbed a hill. “Sounds reasonable. They have to go somewhere to get out of the sun and rest. As far as I know, they still sleep, right?”

  She shrugged. “I guess so. Who knows? Seems like the doctors don’t even understand this. None of them.”

  “I know what you mean,” he said. “Jane and I went to a hospital to check things out when it first started. I went back a second time and had to take my mom to one of those infected zones, the treatment camps?” Wren nodded with sympathy. “It just all seemed one step above chaos. Or maybe one step below. I really don’t think they know what to do now.”

  “The medical people?”

  “Yeah, them. The government, too. The CDC was supposed to be handling this, but so far, I haven’t seen any signs of people getting better.”

  “Not with medical care. I think some just get better. Elijah’s brother did. He had it.”

  “Alex?” he asked, to which she nodded. “Yeah, my friend Brian did, too. Not that it matters now.”

  “Yeah, sorry.”

  Roman shook his head. “Don’t be. We’ve all lost people. My loss is no greater than yours.”

  “How’s Jane doing? She and that girl Destiny were friends, right?”

  “Yeah, she was both our friend and my neighbor. It’s weird. I never would’ve thought she’d do something like that.”

  Wren frowned and paused before speaking again. “There’s really no telling what anyone’s gonna do now, Roman. Hell, I’m not even sure what I’m gonna do. I’m just holding on day by day.”

  “Hey, don’t talk like that,” he scolded. “Don’t even think about killing yourself.”

  “I didn’t mean it like that,” she said as the road leveled off at the top. They were close to his house now, or Jane’s father’s house. “I just meant about this living arrangement and hanging around here or what I’m going to do.”