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

“Ambitious does not even begin to describe my parents.”

“Yeah?” Elijah said in a way that hinted he wanted more backstory as Wren slipped her hand free, much to his disappointed expression.

“Oh, yeah,” Roman answered. “My dad owned his own company, too. Wanted me to take it over someday, but that wasn’t going to happen. I had no interest in the nine-to-nine stress. They put in horrible hours. Argued a lot from stress. My dad had an ulcer from it and was always popping antacids. They wanted to retire soon and had worked hard to do it. Now, none of it matters. What’s the point in early retirement if you don’t live to see it? He was headed towards a heart attack from the stress anyway. I really don’t think he was in good health even before the virus got him. It was ridiculous how much they lived for their careers and the money above anything else.”

Elijah shook his head, “Yeah, I get it. Sounds horrible.”

“What about you?” Roman asked him.

“No parents. Mom died of cancer. Dad and little brother in a car accident a few years back. Just me and Alex now.”

“I’m so sorry, Elijah,” Jane said.

“It’s okay. We got through it. Alex is ambitious, too, though. We’d planned on starting our own stonemasonry company someday after I got outta college.”

“Or the NFL,” Roman added with a knowing smile.

“Maybe. That’s never guaranteed,” Elijah said.

“Nah, you were going big,” Roman argued. “Everyone talked about you like you’d be the next big star. Even up at our school. I’d heard a lot of the dads talking about your arm. I’m sure if you got a full ride to OSU, you were going pro after.”

Elijah frowned as if the burden of his golden boy status annoyed him. He gave a small harrumph and shrugged. Then he lapsed into silence.

“What about you, Wren?” Jane asked.

“What about me?” she asked in a more defensive tone than she’d intended.

“Were you going to college with Elijah?”

“Why would I?”

Jane stammered, “Uh…’cuz…well, never mind. Were you going to college after high school?”

“She was going to Ohio State, too,” Elijah answered for her.

“Oh, cool!” Jane exclaimed.

“Not together or anything,” Wren clarified. “It was just a coincidence.”

She furtively glanced at Elijah, who had a crestfallen expression on his face.

“Oh,” Jane repeated more quietly this time.

“Were you going to college, Jane?” Elijah asked.

She shook her head, “Probably not. I wanted to travel, but it probably wasn’t going to be possible.”

Roman took her hand in his as he drove them down the middle of the road. “I would’ve taken you with me.”

She blushed.

“Were you taking a furlough from school?” Wren asked him.

Roman replied, “Absolutely. I wasn’t ready for college. I wanted to travel, especially around the south.”

“Roman’s very good at playing the guitar,” Jane praised.

“No, not that good,” he corrected and sent her a warm smile.

They drove past a business that had clearly been looted and burned nearly to the ground.

“Wow,” Elijah commented. “So many businesses destroyed. You guys think we’ll ever come back from this?”

“No,” Wren immediately answered.

“Maybe,” Jane said more quietly.

Roman, being the most pragmatic of the four of them, said, “I think someday, economically, we could come back. Rise to being a superpower again, but it’s going to take a really long time. And, of course, they have to eliminate or cure all of the infected. Plus, eradicate the virus with an anti-viral medicine or some sort of vaccine. We can’t exactly live with them.”

“No, I’d say that’s not an option,” Elijah stated and looked out his window.

“Hey, the road’s flooded up ahead, Roman,” Jane said with concern. “Be careful.”

“I see it,” he commented and slowed to a snail’s pace through the high water. “Someone took the cap off that hydrant over there. They did this on purpose. Idiots.”

He turned right at the next intersection and began weaving down side streets until they’d gone another fifteen minutes or so. Then Wren began to recognize her surroundings. They were close to Massillon again.

“Since I had to go a different way, we’ll go to your house first, Wren,” Roman said. “We’re going to run out of time to get back home before dark, so I want to make sure we have enough time to go to your house.”

“Trailer, not house.”

“Right,” he agreed and made another left-hand turn. “Just tell me the way.”

“Stay straight for a while, Roman,” Elijah answered for her.

“Wren lived out the other end of town.”

Elijah directed him to her old trailer court, for which she was thankful because Wren didn’t want to chat. Going back there brought up memories of Jamie, and that just didn’t put her in a good mood.

“There, that one,” Elijah said, pointing between the front seats out the windshield.

“Whoa,” Roman remarked quietly.

“What happened?” Jane asked of the trailer with a million bullet holes in it.

“This is where Wren and I made our last stand, so to speak,” he said and opened his door.

“Should we wait….or…,” Jane asked.

“No, you can come in, I guess,” she answered and also got out with Dixie at her side.

When they’d fled, they hadn’t locked up, so Wren opened the door and walked right in. It was weird to be back. The place still looked the same but had a dank smell, and most of the windows were broken from the gunfire it had endured.

“Make yourselves at home,” she said. “I’ll be back.”

She rushed down the hall to get away from them for a moment to think and calm herself. Going into Jamie’s room did something awful to her heart. She shut the door quietly and tried not to dwell on the pair of work-boots sitting near the bed. Instead, she crossed the room quickly and opened his second closet door. The first one was where she and Elijah had escaped through the floor. This one held secrets Jamie had hidden from her.

Kneeling down on the icy cold floor, she felt around on the carpeting until she found a cut edge. The task took a few minutes because he’d so thoroughly