Apokalypsis | Book 6 | Apokalypsis 6 Morris, Kate (cheapest way to read ebooks TXT) 📖

like us. They were shooting. They all know how to get out of a situation like that. Just like us.”

“Right,” he agreed. “Right. We’re doing the right thing. We gotta keep going. We have to get home.”

“And if they’re not there, then we go back with Tristan and more help.”

“Agreed. Let’s just wait a while. Maybe they’ll answer their radios or phones if we keep trying.”

Dixie just kept whining, so Wren unbuckled again and turned around to offer her a few strokes to calm her. This was a lot for the poor dog to handle, too.

“Elijah, stop!” she screamed. He hit the brakes when she showed him her bloody hand. “Dixie’s been shot!”

She had some seriously bad luck. She’d always known that, having grown up in foster care after being orphaned and then homeless. Getting the boy away from his crackhead mother and equally loser friends had been her number one priority, but she’d managed to pull it off. Now she had two more problems: a boy who seemed autistic or something and his mother, who was injured badly.

They were all sleeping in the living room of the expensive mansion, a home like she’d never been in before. It was warm, and they had shared in a hot meal of food that was left behind in the massive kitchen. For some reason, this home had heat. She and the boy had been staying in some real dives the past week, most without heat, running water, or food. She’d scavenged daily for food, clean water, and anything to make their lives more comfortable. It wasn’t easy.

They’d even been able to shower and change into clean clothes. The odd boy had helped his mother since she was wearing a cast on her foot, which he’d told her that he made himself. He seemed very smart, maybe too smart to relate to the world in standardized terms. His mother adored him. She knew the feeling, understood that motherly care and concern now.

“Marti?” Walter asked her in the dark, which surprised her because she thought he was sleeping.

“Yes, Walter?” she answered, hating the sound of her name coming from someone so smart. Her own worthless mother had named her Martini, as in the drink. She’d shortened it to Marti when she’d become old enough to realize what it meant.

“Can you come with us?”

That question hung in the air for a long time as Marti weighed her options. Owen didn’t belong to her. She’d stolen him, and she knew that group was looking for her. Not because they missed or loved the little boy, but because they wanted to make her pay for defying their leader’s orders and use him as a weapon against her forever.

She’d considered just stealing Walter and Jacqueline’s car when she saw them pull up to the curb. Then he’d gone and introduced himself in that innocent manner of his. That was it. She was officially a sucker for the underdog. Hell, she was the underdog, always had been. Maybe that’s why she felt protective of Walter, Jacqueline, who was clearly in over her head and skillset for their current worldwide circumstances, and little Owen, who needed her most of all.

“Yeah, we’ll go with you, Walter,” she agreed before she could stop the impulsive words from coming out of her mouth. She didn’t even know where the hell they were going! “Get some rest.”

Chapter Twenty-nine

Jane

“Roman, it’s dark,” she reminded him. “I mean, like totally dark. You sure this place will have what we need?”

They were parked behind the Mega Mart, which had just opened recently before the virus struck. It was the thinktank idea of company execs to save and reboot the big box store concept that had not profited so well in the last few decades, steadily declining, many closing altogether. This was the combination of a home improvement store, a furniture store, and a smaller Walmart style of store that still carried groceries and home goods. They didn’t even have landscaping planted or lines painted on the parking lot spaces yet.

“Positive,” he said. “Besides, Alex is just around the corner. They’ll be here in a second.”

“Okay,” Jane said quietly, not liking the plan. They didn’t have a lot of choices, though. One of those men had shot a hole through their gas tank, and now it was empty. They’d barely made it to this place, let alone any further.

When Alex and Stephanie showed up, they got out to greet them, but Jane kept her eyes on their surroundings just as she had from inside the truck, as well. Alex knelt in the snow to inspect the damaged tank and got up with a nod.

“Yeah, let’s find some shit and fix this,” he announced.

Stephanie said, also looking around nervously, “Maybe we should stay here for the night.”

“Did you get ahold of Elijah yet?” Roman asked them.

“Yeah, they called in a little while ago,” he said. “Finally got a signal on their cell phone. Guess her dog got hurt or something. He said they were safe, though.”

“Are they going home?” Roman asked.

“I don’t know. Phone cut out.”

Roman nodded with sympathy and what looked like frustration.

Alex looked up at the giant structure and said, “Alright, let’s get in there and find something to fix this. We’ll check it out. If it seems safe, we’ll stay. If not, we just might have to keep going.”

“But those things,” Jane said.

“As long as we stay in the trucks, we should be okay to keep going.”

“That’s not what Tristan said to do,” she reminded them. “He said they could overwhelm our vehicle if enough of them blocked us in.”

“Yeah, well, let’s see,” Alex said and went ahead of them to the doors.

They tried numerous doors in the vehicle service department where they were parked and found them locked. Alex left to try a door in the front of the building, which seemed so terribly far away. It took a few minutes, but he did return from the inside and let them in.

“Be careful,” he warned. “This