Apokalypsis Book One

by Kate Morris

  “Phillips?” Roman asked with unconcealed distaste.

  “Yes, I think that’s the one. Is she a friend of yours?” she asked him.

  “Um, no, not really,” he answered honestly and looked at Jane.

  “Is she in the hospital?” Jane asked her grandmother.

  “I believe so.”

  “That’s too bad,” she said. “Poor Stephanie.”

  There wasn’t an ounce of sarcasm in her voice. She genuinely felt sorry that her worst enemy’s mother was sick.

  “Yeah, she’s not too fond of her step-father, and her father moved to Reno with his new wife and kids.”

  “Oh, that’s terrible,” Jane added.

  He stared at her with disbelief. Nobody could be this nice.

  “It is,” she reiterated, defying his doubt.

  “She has a little sister, maybe thirteen or so,” Roman added. “But she lives with the dad, not here.”

  “I’m sure someone will go over and help them, neighbors or extended family,” Peaches said. “How were the stores, Jane?”

  “Crowded, crazy,” she said.

  “You went to a store?”

  “Yes, we needed stuff. Not all of that came from trading,” she said about the food in the basement. “Nana Peaches said it was probably a good idea to stock up on some stuff in case they start rationing it.”

  “Do you think they would?” Roman asked her grandmother.

  “It’s happened before,” she said. “During the Great Depression.”

  “Right, I think I read something about that. Seemed so unreal at the time when I was reading it.”

  “It could become very real if this goes on for a while,” Peaches said.

  “I think you’re right. I’m gonna get my dad to go with me tomorrow and do the same.”

  “Make sure you stock up on plenty of canned goods and medicines you might need,” Peaches advised. “Those are the things that’ll go first.”

  “Yeah, she’s right. There were already bare shelves in some spots. I went to the wholesale club. I’m not sure what we’ll do with a three pound can of green beans, but I figured, what the hay.”

  He smiled at her turn of phrase.

  “I noticed a lot more military vehicles on the road, too,” Jane added. “I went up past the Strip to go to the wholesale club. There was a lot of traffic and congestion and a lot of military trucks.”

  “Probably brought in to help get the medical sites set up,” he said, saying out loud what he was thinking. “Look, I think…I think you should wait and let me go with you next time. It might not be as safe as you think. If this gets worse and they start rationing supplies, it could get really dangerous.”

  “That’s probably a good idea, Jane,” her grandmother agreed.

  “People were getting pretty testy,” Jane said.

  “Why didn’t you lead with that? That’s pretty important, Jane,” he berated, irritation edging into his tone. “You should’ve called me. I could’ve been there in a few minutes.”

  “I was fine. There were cops in the stores. Nothing happened.”

  “The fact that there were policemen in the stores already tells me that it was dangerous. They wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t.”

  “Nothing happened,” she repeated.

  “This time,” he added. “I’ll go with you next time. I’ve got a pocket knife just in case. I mean, in case something happens or one of those infected people gets in there.”

  “Son, you might want to invest in more than a pocket knife,” Peaches commented lightly.

  “My dad’s got a gun, but he keeps it locked up in a safe in his closet. He’d lose his crap if he knew I took it.”

  “All we have is a shotgun and an old Army rifle my father left me,” Peaches said. “I don’t even know if I’ve still got ammunition for it.”

  Roman smiled. “Not too conspicuous, either. I’d kind of not like to get arrested for carrying a gun in public if I don’t have to.”

  Jane smiled and said, “Hopefully it won’t come to that. The police seem to have everything under control.”

  He refrained from comment but kept thinking about the situation with Caleb and again with their teacher and at the hospital. It didn’t seem to him like it would take much to tip the balance from control to out of control very quickly.

  He stated, “I think if we go out, we should be wearing our masks and also gloves and go together. Also…”

  The television blasted a long series of beeps from the other room, and they all stopped eating and looked at each other. Her grandmother rose, and Roman and Jane shot out of their chairs and beat her to the living room. Jane grabbed the remote and turned up the volume. The screen went black. Then a graphic of words came on. “Emergency Alert System.” A series of beeps blared again.

  “This is a message from the Emergency Alert System and Homeland Security,” a computerized woman’s voice announced.

  Jane slipped her hand in his as if she were afraid. Roman gave it a reassuring squeeze, although he certainly didn’t feel very confident.

  “A special message from the Centers for Disease Control will broadcast at seven p.m., October 18. It will repeat at ten p.m. and again at midnight, eastern standard time on local and national news channels followed by a brief message from the President of the United States.”

  She went on to repeat the message twice more before the channel went black and tapped out the same series of beeps and returned to the news Peaches had on before.

  “Tomorrow night,” Jane said, sliding her hand free without her grandmother noticing. “It comes on tomorrow.”

  Her grandmother sighed and said, “Well, let’s finish our dinner and clean up. Then we’ll organize the basement later.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Jane replied.

  “I’ll stay and help. It’ll go much faster,” Roman volunteered.

  “Thank you, Roman,” her grandmother answered.

  He felt like shit for the tenth time or maybe the hundredth. His mother was rude to Jane and her grandmother, had likened them to bad people who were not good enough to hang out with him, and yet, this woman was not doing the same, nor was she judging him because of his mother’s actions. He regarded her as she talked with Jane about their apple stockpile. Peaches was a pretty woman for her age, which he guessed to be in her early sixties. She always wore clothing that looked like it belonged to a man, just like she was currently in denim overalls and a flannel shirt that had seen better days. Her feet were usually covered in worn and dusty boots, and her mostly gray hair was always pulled back in a thick bun. Like Jane, she had an earthy, natural quality about her that was not unpleasant.

  “I’m not going to take any more crates of apples to the restaurant or the store or the donation center,” she was explaining.

  “Why not?” Jane asked.

  “We may need them,” she said. “I’m not sure at what point the trucks full of supplies and groceries will not be able to make it to the grocery stores. I want you to go out again tomorrow and get what you can.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Jane said.

  “If Roman can take you, then I’ll take the truck and do the same.”

  “Are you sure that’s safe?” Roman asked.

  “It will be,” she reassured him with a sly grin and went back to her lasagna.

  He assumed the reason she was so sure was because she’d be taking one of her guns with her.

  “I’m going to talk to my dad tonight, too,” he told them. “I’ll see if he can go with me and Jane.”

  Jane chirped up and asked with concern, “What will you do with Connor?”

  “Right, I hadn’t thought of that.”

  Miss Barnes asked, “Where’s your mother? Can’t she stay at home with him?”

  He was embarrassed to say, “No, ma’am, she left for a business trip.”

  “Hm,” Peaches said as she thought quietly for a moment. “I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you use our truck, and I’ll keep Connor here
with me? That way you aren’t taking him out there and won’t have to worry about him being alone while you’re gone. Plus, the truck’s going to be able to carry more.”

  “Yeah!” Jane said enthusiastically.

  “Are you sure? I don’t want to impose…”

  She leveled him with a stare, “Roman, I’m always sure of what I say. As long as your little brother wouldn’t mind staying with me.”

  “No, ma’am,” he said with confidence. If he was being honest with himself, Connor would probably love the place.

  “He can help me make more applesauce,” she said. “Then I’ll show him how to collect the last of the honey for the season.”

  His eyebrows shot up with concern. Jane laughed.

  “It’s not that big of a deal. It’s safe,” she assured him.

  “Cool,” he said. “I think going out tomorrow before that message, whatever it’s gonna be, is a good idea.”

  “I agree,” Peaches said. “If enough people have heard that message tonight that the CDC and the President are going to be on tomorrow night, there may not even be anything left. People may panic and wipe out the stores first thing.”

  “We’ll go early,” he said.

  They finished their meal, and Roman helped Jane clean it all up and wash the dishes. Then he sent his dad a text to make sure he knew about the Emergency Broadcast. He hadn’t but said he was planning on listening to it in the car on the ride home from the airport. They were still waiting for her flight, which was just boarding.

  As he was rinsing the sudsy water down the sink and draining it, the television beeped out that same, staccato warning again. They were repeating the broadcast about the press conference tomorrow night again.

  He stayed and helped Jane and her grandmother organize the basement to make room for the extra canned goods and perishables Jane had purchased.

  “Jane,” she said, “I have a few trees out at the end of the orchard I think we should try to get picked. I noticed a few on the ground earlier. It’s more than ready. We’ve just been busy.”

  “No problem,” Jane answered. “I’ll go out first thing in the morning and get them.”

  “I’ll come over and help,” Roman offered, getting a funny look from Jane. “I don’t mind.”

  “Good,” Miss Barnes said. “I’m going up now. Think you can finish up? I need to call Dot. She has a niece in Arizona who is sick.”

  “Sure, we’ve got this,” he replied for them. “We still have a few things to put away.”

  She nodded and went back upstairs.

  “This is crazy,” Jane said when her grandmother left.

  He nodded and exhaled a shaky breath as he thought about it. This was all a lot to process.

  “Do you think it’ll be good news?” she asked and handed him a can of corn from the crate to stack on a shelf.

  Roman just looked at her. She wanted him to say something positive and hopeful, but he also didn’t want to lie, either. He was starting to learn about her. She didn’t like bad news. She was, despite her life at school and her miserable start in life in general, a positive, glass is half full kind of person. It made her charming. Naïve. But charming, nonetheless.

  “Jane, I don’t think so,” he admitted, hating to deflate her bubble of hope about the impending broadcast. “I think if they’re doing it in some big PSA kind of moment on television and replaying it over and over that this is not going to be good news.”

  She paused in digging out more cans and nodded. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

  He grabbed a few more out of another crate and stacked them on the shelf in the pantry room that was very dimly lit with just the single bulb and low ceiling. The basement in his house was finished, had a theater room, a pool table, and two guest bedrooms. It seemed so worthless now.

  Jane placed her cans next to his on the shelf, and Roman laid his hand on top of hers there.

  “Jane, I want you to be really careful, okay?”

  “I am. I always am,” she said and glanced up at him.

  He shook his head, “No, not like before this all started. I’m worried, really worried about you. Just try not to go anywhere unless I’m with you.”

  “Roman, I can handle myself,” she said stubbornly.

  “No, you can’t,” he said with a touch of anger that made her flinch. “Sorry.”

  He moved his hand to her soft cheek and cupped it gently.

  “Why are you even doing all this for me? For my grandmother? You could just stay inside your gated community and probably be fine.”

  He frowned and shook his head. “I don’t think so. And I’m not just doing this out of the goodness of my heart. I have ulterior motives.”

  She jerked back and regarded him with caution. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You see,” he said with a grin, “I recently started dating the cutest girl in school, and I’d kinda’ like it if I could take her on one more date. You know, before the worldwide plague kicks off. Or I turn into a mutant and croak.”

  She smirked crookedly and shook her head as if she didn’t believe him. Roman was pretty sure that nobody ever complimented her much in her life because she definitely never believed him when he did it.

  He drew in a deep breath and held it. Jane made him feel like they were the only two people on earth. He hoped it was not premonitory.

  “I think it’s just pity,” she said and bent to retrieve more cans.

  He did the same and placed his on the shelf again.

  “What’s pity?” he asked.

  She looked up at him and grabbed a bag of rice. “You hanging out over here all the time. Helping me. Working with me at the stables. Driving me to school.”

  “I feel sorry for lots of people, but you don’t see me driving them to school.”

  “Yeah, but your friends were jerks to me, and now you have some sort of proxy guilt thing going on in your head.”

  He smiled. “That is definitely true.”

  Her gaze jumped to his. He nodded and kept up the ruse.

  “Yeah, pity. That’s what it is.”

  “I knew it was,” she said and looked at her feet with disappointment.

  “Then I saw you in a swimsuit,” he said with a smile, causing her to look up at him with wide eyes. “No more pity. That switched off real quick.”

  She tipped her head to the side with irritation and gave him a nasty look.

  “What? I’m into fake boobs. What can I say?”

  Jane laughed and backhanded his bicep playfully.

  He chuckled and said, “Jane Livingston, is it so hard to believe that I actually like being around you? No strings attached. No pity. Just your company?”

  She snorted. “Uh, yeah, it is. Very much so.”

  The way she looked back at the floor made him question her, “Why is that?”

  “You haven’t said more than a full sentence to me in the four years that I’ve known you. Now, I see you practically every day.”

  “I don’t know how to answer that other than to say that I’m an idiot and a coward,” he said honestly.

  “You don’t seem like either of those things.”

  This was a good time to feel her out for what she really did think of him, “What am I then?”

  She sighed and said, “Strangely…nice.”

  That was hardly passion, but it was a good start. “Thanks. At least you didn’t say I’m a total dick.”

  “No, your friends are total dicks, but not you.”

  She blushed from the use of that word, which he was pretty sure she wasn’t comfortable using. Or standing up for herself.

  He laughed and said, “Thanks. I wouldn’t want to be lumped in with them. Brian and Aaron are cool, too.”

  “Yeah, they’re not so bad. At least they don’t seem so judgy.”

  This reminded him of something, and Roman frowned thinking of it. “Before I forget, I’m sorry about the way my mom treated you the other day. That was wrong on so many level
s.”

  Jane squatted in a flash and began unloading more cans and bags of beans and rice.

  She shook her head and said, “It’s fine. You don’t have to apologize. You texted. I saw them.”

  “You’re right. I don’t, but I want to. She should. She was wrong. And rude. But I’m sorry anyway.”

  Jane rushed and placed the bags on the shelf. Roman touched her arm, causing her to turn toward him again.

  “Your parents obviously don’t like me, so why do you think your dad’s gonna want to go with us tomorrow to find groceries and stuff?”

  “He will. He’s not like her. I heard them fighting when they thought I went to bed that night. I’m pretty sure he was pissed at her for acting like that.”

  Jane frowned and said, “I’m used to it, Roman. Look, I don’t want to cause problems between you and your mother. Maybe we should just…”

  “No, don’t even say it. We aren’t going to stop seeing each other.”

  “But, what is this? I don’t even understand why you’re being so nice to me. I don’t want you to ruin your relationship with your mother over me. I’m nothing. I’m not even important.”

  “You are important. To me, Jane Livingston…” he said firmly and grasped both of her hands in his so that she’d look up at him. “To me, you’re…everything.”

  A little line marred the perfectly smooth skin between her dark brows. Roman bent and kissed her there. Then he rested his mouth against her forehead and cupped the back of her head.

  “Man, I missed you,” he confessed, breathing in the soft, warm scent of her. “Don’t ignore my texts anymore. You’re a terrible girlfriend.”

  “Girlfriend?” she whispered sheepishly.

  “Yes. Girlfriend,” he boldly stated with finality and pressed another kiss to her forehead. There was no way in hell he was letting her get away. If it was the end of the world, he wanted it to be with her. The thought of her spending any of that precious time with someone else made him want to punch something. He selfishly wanted Jane for himself and didn’t care what anyone thought. Not his parents, her grandmother, or their friends at school. This was the girl he wanted to hold hands with if the world was going to end. They stood there another minute, and he gave her some time and space to let his declaration sink in.