Apokalypsis | Book 5 | Apokalypsis 5

by Morris, Kate

  “What went wrong?”

  “I dunno’,” she answered and went to the front door.

  Kaia opened it to a panting Roman with his hand raised ready to knock.

  “Come in, Roman. Come in,” she told him. “What happened?”

  Her brain was already racing with dread. Tristan had come home shot, which had scared her half to death. After he showed her the wound and assured her that Alex took every precaution he could against infection, she’d sighed and insisted he shower anyway. After he was done, she also forced him to go to bed and promised to wake him by two o’clock. Before she let him go down for sleep, she’d insisted he take a mild pain pill, even though he’d vehemently protested. She knew he’d never rest if he wasn’t dosed with some sort of heavy sedative for the pain. Now she wasn’t so sure that was a good idea. He was dead out upstairs.

  “Ran into some trouble with some people. We handled it, but the SUV got shot, gas leaked out, I guess. It’s no good now. We stole a trailer in town to haul our stuff. Tristan was right. One of the semi’s had a ton of freight in the back. I think maybe it was going to one of those military settlements or something. We didn’t even look into the other ones yet, and there’s still a lot we left behind in the one we did open. We had some trouble with some people in trucks. Then the cops came, and we had trouble with them, too. I don’t know. It was a weird deal. I think they were trying to rob us, too. I had to leave those guys up the street. Not too far from here. Maybe a few miles.”

  “Which direction?” Spencer asked, coming into the foyer.

  “Um, towards town. The main road off ours. Go to the end of the street and hook a right.”

  “The state route, got it,” Avery said, knowing what he meant. It was the same state route that led back up to the cities or in the other direction to their small town.

  “Does Tristan’s truck have a trailer hitch on it?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” she said, already pulling on her hiking shoes, hoodie, and coat.

  Spencer answered, “Let me run out and check.”

  He sped away, pulling on his coat as best as he could with one arm.

  Roman asked her, “What are you doing?”

  Avery instantly answered, “Going with you, of course.”

  She then picked up her rifle, which Tristan had been helping her practice with just the other day, and pulled it onto her shoulder with the nylon strap.

  “Me, too,” Kaia announced.

  “No, stay here with the kids.” Before her sister could argue, which she was sure to do, Avery added, “Don’t argue, Kaia. Watch the kids. Tristan’s asleep, and Spencer’s injured.”

  “We might be able to use the hitch from the SUV. He doesn’t have a hitch,” Spencer added in and reached for his hat only to have Renee hang it back up.

  “I don’t think so, Spence.”

  “Honey, I…”

  “No!”

  Avery let them work out their issues and called for Abraham, who was only on the other side of the wall, which surprised her since she thought he was working out in the basement.

  “I’m ready,” he said, pulling on gloves.

  “Oh,” Avery answered with surprise.

  Spencer interrupted Renee’s rant about his arm and said to Roman, “Hey, he doesn’t have a hitch, but it’s fitted for one. All you gotta do is drop the trailer using a jack. Grab the one in the barn when you go. It’s right inside the man door to your right. Take the hitch off the SUV, and put it on the truck. It should fit. Tristan’s is outfitted for it, but he must’ve taken it off for something. C’mon. I’ll show you.”

  “Got it,” he told him.

  “Anything else we need?” she asked Roman.

  “No, I don’t think so. A vehicle with a good gas tank,” he joked with a crooked grin that made him look so handsome. Roman Lockwood was a good-looking boy, but he was also calm, relaxed, and was very good at keeping everyone else so. Avery felt like he carried a lot of burden of adult responsibility on his young shoulders, and she knew how he felt about Jane because he wore it on his sleeve for anyone to see.

  Roman jogged up to the barn to get the hitch with Spencer, and she grabbed Tristan’s keys off the hook near the double ovens. She told the kids to behave while she was gone. Kaia was pouting, but she kissed her cheek anyway. Then she, Abraham, and Roman were on their way in Tristan’s truck.

  Getting up their driveway, she had to put it in 4x4 and wondered what’d they do in the thaw when her father normally had a local contractor drag and backfill it with new gravel. They’d just have to make do. A tiny sliver of her brain held out hope that this would all end by then. It was a very miniscule sliver, getting thinner each day this dragged on.

  They drove to the end of the road, which was severely tracked up from their own vehicles coming and going but managed to keep it on the road even though it slid and almost got stuck a few times in the deeper ruts. She turned right at the end of their street and headed toward the spot where their friends should’ve been waiting.

  “It’s not far from here,” he told her, sitting a little closer to the edge of his seat.

  “Okay, I figured,” she said as she veered around a particularly deep snowdrift. “Looks like other vehicles have come through here recently.”

  “Yeah, not us,” he said. “We went…”

  “Went the other way?” she finished when he paused.

  “What the…?” Abraham interrupted them.

  Avery looked out his window and then forward again. “What is it? Oh!”

  Up ahead of them, she could see three vehicles in the road. It looked like they were blocking the route.

  “Shit, that’s Wren and Elijah!” Roman nearly yelled. “That’s that cop again. Oh, man, they’re in trouble.”

  “What do we do? Go back for help?” Slowing the truck, she came to a pause in the road and held her foot on the brake. “What do we do?” she repeated.

  Gunfire popped off in the distance, and she jumped.

  “I don’t think we can go back,” Abraham said. “They need help now.”

  Roman asked her directly, “How good of a shot are you?”

  “Uh,” she paused. “Good enough. I don’t think we have time, either. I hope you’re better than me.”

  “Okay,” he said. “Pull into that lane, Avery.”

  She crawled the truck forward and pulled left into the driveway, which was a farmer’s field. The snow was high on Roman’s side from heavy drifting across the flat meadow, so she was pretty sure the others couldn’t see them.

  Abraham said quietly, “I don’t think they saw us.”

  He agreed, “No, me neither or they would’ve shot at us.”

  “Hm,” she mused without humor. This situation was going to be very dangerous, and she just dragged her little brother into it, too.

  “Let’s go,” he said and was out the door before she could even hesitate. She ran around the front, holding onto the truck to prevent herself from falling, and met them at Roman’s door. “You’re wearing a white coat. That’s good,” he pointed out and threw his black one inside the truck’s cab and shut the door quietly. It left Roman in a thermal beige shirt. Abraham was wearing a light tan Carhartt, which he must’ve felt was sufficient because he didn’t leave it behind.

  “Let’s separate. You guys sneak into the woods there,” Roman said, indicating the grove of trees near them. “I’ll go across the street and sneak behind that house over there, the brick one. They’ll be surrounded.”

  “Got it.”

  “If we all get killed, and it’s just you and Abraham, just hold tight. I’m sure Tristan will find you if we’re not back within a half hour. Spencer will get him up. Hide in the woods. Don’t come back to the truck. You won’t have time to before they’re on you. Get out of here with Abraham. You two are familiar with the area. Go deep into the woods and just hide where you can still see the road or watch for Tristan.”

  “Okay.”

  Her voice shook, w
hich made her cringe.

  “We got this,” he said. “Wren’s a hell of a shot. Elijah, too. They just need some backup.”

  She nodded, and they separated. The snow was deep, and she wished she’d worn her long mud boots instead. Her feet were soaked within seconds, but she made it to the cluster of trees with her brother undetected. She was a lot closer to them now and drew closer with each footstep.

  “I’m going down that way a little further, Ave,” Abraham said, touched her shoulder, and jogged away. Within a minute or so, he was gone from her sight, which scared her even more.

  Before she even came to a clear spot to get into a good position, a new, louder gunfire cracked off. Rushing, tripping once, she got into position and realized Roman was now shooting at them, the gunfire sprinkled in with the tap, tap, tap-tap of Elijah and Wren, who seemed only to be holding them off. A man flew back against the cop car, shot, probably killed. She was pretty sure that was from Abraham on her left somewhere hidden who’d made that shot. Avery said a quick apology to her parents and aimed carefully. The man in the police uniform was stalking around one of their trucks toward Wren and Elijah, who she could see now hunkered down in the deep ditch beside the SUV. She aimed down the two sights. Avery took a breath and held it like Tristan had shown her and pulled the trigger. The loud shot startled her, which she remembered him telling her was a good thing. Unfortunately, it pinged off of the truck and missed him. She fired two more times and missed. This was so much harder than she thought it would be. It was definitely not like the video games her siblings had taken to playing lately.

  The police officer spun and fired in her direction. Now her cover was blown, and she was making zero impact on the situation other than probably getting herself killed. Then Elijah or Wren, she wasn’t sure which, shot the police officer. He fell instantly dead against the truck and slid to the ground in a heap.

  Another person, a woman this time, ran around the truck to check on him. Avery wasn’t sure, but she thought Roman fired. The woman also fell but was still alive. A man rushed over to help her, and Avery took careful aim. Was it wrong to shoot a man that wasn’t shooting at her? She fired and hit her mark this time. It was almost instantaneously followed up with a round by Wren, who was standing now. The man fell. Wren also fired and shot the woman on the ground before ducking back down again. Yikes. That was brutal.

  Two people jumped into the police car and backed up. It spun out and got stuck. She could hear them screaming at one another. They made the decision to get out again, which proved fatal for the woman. Someone in their group shot her. Avery thought maybe it was Roman this time. Abraham popped off two rounds but missed the man who’d tried to flee with her.

  The man panicked and ran for the truck that was peppered with so many bullet holes she wasn’t sure how it even fired up. He backed up and peeled out in the snow. Avery fired, and his left front tire blew out. It didn’t matter to him, though. He slammed on the gas and took off to a barrage of gunfire at his back. The truck careened wildly all over the snowy, wet road but managed to get away. He wouldn’t get far with a flat like that.

  She paused, unsure if it was clear to come out into the open. It wasn’t. More gunfire popped off as Elijah stood. She watched as Wren pulled him back down. Avery couldn’t tell where the gunfire was coming from, but she could see Roman across the way. He ducked back behind the brick house, which was probably pretty good cover.

  Roman’s voice carried across the field, even through the light breeze, “Come out! We’ve got you surrounded.”

  That sent a chill up her back, and Avery swung to check over her shoulder. She was alone in the woods, separated from her brother, who had risen and moved somewhere else according to his last few shots, and one of the infected people could sneak up on her, despite the sun that was high in the noon sky. Nothing was there, but it didn’t help the creeped-out feelings she was now having with her back to the forest.

  The remaining people, maybe a total of three, yelled expletives and shot some rounds toward Roman’s voice. Then she heard whispering. Avery felt helpless and immobile in her position, so she crept quietly back toward the truck a little and took a knee behind a massive stump of a fallen over oak. The tree had likely been beautiful and majestic, but it had been recently uprooted, likely due to high winds. It was on its side, the branches, leafless and tangled on the ground, the root ball a mess of muddy, long, and spindly roots. It seemed like good cover but was, in fact, probably not something that would stop a bullet. However, she could see them. Two men. They were plotting. She could tell this by the way they were motioning with their hands to one another. They seemed frantic but angry. The stump proved handy, and she rested the barrel there and sunk lower into her haunches to aim down the iron sights.

  It felt wrong to take aim at someone’s back, but she told herself if she didn’t, then one or all of her new friends could be killed. Her brother could be killed, or she could also be killed, and the kids needed her.

  And so, she aimed more carefully than before as the one stout man low squatted and tried to sneak around between the remaining car and the police cruiser. Avery squeezed, and it startled her again. The man screamed out loudly and stood up all the way. Someone else shot him again- Roman if she were guessing correctly. He went down hard. He screamed out in pain.

  His partner didn’t need any more encouragement and got in the remaining car to flee. He did a three-sixty in the snow, a donut like her father showed her in an abandoned parking lot years ago when he was teaching her to drive in the snow. It had scared the daylights out of her, but she learned how to maneuver in snowy conditions and how quickly things could spin out of control. This man did not learn that. He spun out too far and crashed into the cruiser. The car stalled, and she could hear him over-crank it in his panic to flee. The vehicle screamed as if in pain.

  Movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention as Elijah and Wren stalked purposefully forward and began shooting out the windows. After a few more rounds, the man’s body jerked violently and slumped forward and then over onto the front seat. They’d clearly worked together in this sort of lousy scenario before.

  Roman moved in as Wren sent a hand wave to let them know it was clear. Avery sighed and rose. This was not how she thought her day was going to go this morning.

  Finn had wanted her to read to him, so while Renee had made breakfast, she’d spent some time with her little brother and read to him from one of his favorite book series, Narnia. Then they’d had a peaceful breakfast, and she’d even sewn some patches in the boys’ jeans, Tristan’s included. She was no seamstress, not by a longshot, but Avery figured they ought to be careful with the clothes they had in case this dragged on for a longer time than they all hoped it would.

  It was a peaceful morning other than the news of Tristan being winged by a bullet. But now it was filled with bloodshed and murder, some for which she was responsible, and she would have to live with that for the rest of her life and would always wonder why those people were attacking her friends. She might not ever know. And in the end, all that mattered was that they were safe.

  She watched as Roman ran back down the street to retrieve Tristan’s truck as she trudged across the field through two and three-foot snowdrifts toward her brother, Wren, and Elijah.

  “Are you guys okay?” she asked, a little breathless when she got there. Roman pulled up and was forced to stop past the car that was in their way now.

  “Yeah, we’re cool,” Elijah said, looking a little breathless, as well. Stress could do that. Avery knew the boy played football, was a quarterback, no less, so this should’ve been nothing as far as exertion went. But it wasn’t nothing, and he was still recovering from his own injuries. As a matter of fact, he was limping slightly.

  “Are you sure?” she asked with concern for him.

  “Yeah, my leg’s just sore from laying down in that ditch for so long.”

  “That’s because you were shot a week ago, remember?” Wren
asked angrily.

  “I guess so,” he answered with a grin.

  “I’m going to try and get that car out of our way,” Wren said and gave a nod to Roman, who followed.

  Avery waited with Elijah while they moved it to the side of the road. “I can look at your leg when we get back if you want.”

  “Nah, it feels okay, just stiff.”

  Roman went to the back of the SUV and began turning a crank until the trailer was sitting on the road on the jack they’d brought. Then they all had to push the SUV, which didn’t budge.

  “Crap,” Avery swore.

  “Hang on,” Roman said and went to the truck again. He backed it up to the front of the SUV and hopped out. “I knew Tristan had some chains under the backseat floor.”

  They all watched as he did all the work, which made her feel bad, but Avery had no idea how to help. He hooked Tristan’s chains somewhere under the front of the black SUV and got back in.

  “Put it in neutral!” he called out the open window, so she rushed forward and did so. “Get in and hit the brakes when I get this towed down the road a little out of our way.”

  “Okay!” she called back.

  The truck pulled the heavy vehicle, which she could barely steer to stay with him. When the brake lights of Tristan’s truck came on, she hit the brakes for the SUV and put it in park. Roman removed the chains and threw them in the bed.

  “Let’s get moving,” he said to her when she hitched a ride back to the others. “I really don’t like being out here like this. That guy got away. He could come back as the cop had done with more of their friends.”

  She hadn’t considered that there could be more of them and felt instant panic. “I’ll keep watch while you hook up the trailer.”

  “Thanks.”

  It didn’t take long, but it was a difficult task because the boys did a lot of swearing. She and Wren sat in the cab as per their instructions. Avery backed up and pulled forward a few inches every now and then when Roman instructed. Finally, the trailer hooked on, and the truck seemed to jolt forward, which scared her.

  “Is everything okay?” she called out the window.