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

Abraham fired again and hit another man in the leg, which he grabbed and cried out as he fell in the snow. Then they were spotted as the other men began shooting at their position in the top of the barn. She scream-squeaked and jumped back. Abraham mimicked her and landed in the haystack near her. Then he low crawled to a different area further in.

“Ave, come over this way!” he called out to her as a lot of gunfire went off, some in fully automatic bursts. “Stay low, sis.”

“’Kay,” she returned and sprinted hunched over.

She followed her brother to another area of the barn further in and then down a hallway. There was a row of three glass windows against the wall of a small tack room, where he took her.

From this position, Avery could see the road better but not the house. There was an all-out firefight happening on the ground. She wasn’t sure where Alex was and if he was still in the same spot or not. There was also the possibility he’d been shot.

“Stay here, Ave,” her brother said and touched her arm.

“Where are you going?”

In the light of the moon, she could see the blue of his eyes reflecting a strange calmness.

“Just down the hall. Stay in there. Don’t come out until you’re sure it’s all clear or I come get you.”

“But…” was all she got out before he jogged away.

Avery suffered a moment of acute panic and fear for herself and her brother. She didn’t know the children in the house, but she was just as worried for their well-being, too. Turning back to the window as her brother disappeared into the darkness of the huge old barn, Avery raised her rifle to her shoulder and tried to find some new, unsuspecting person to maim or kill. It was just what her life was now. It was those men or her family, which was the only thing that helped her find some fortitude in her gut to fight for them. She just wasn’t very good at it.

Her sinking feeling intensified as more men with guns got out of the vehicles on the road. They’d wrongly assumed the eight men were the only ones they’d brought. Then she saw headlights coming down the road. Holding the high ground wasn’t going to get them out of this now. They were about to be grossly outnumbered.

She’d named the dog Scrappy because he seemed like a little scrappy dude. His hair was always crazy and slightly dirty, but so was hers, so it didn’t matter. Besides, Scrappy didn’t judge. He was a good boy, loyal and smart. A real good boy. He knew when the shit was gonna hit the fan with those dumb kids who’d gotten themselves all killed playing that board game, getting drunk, and being too loud. He knew when to get them the hell out of a bad situation. Now they were in another one.

The ice rain started a few hours ago, and she and Scrappy were out in it. They were freezing their jibblets off. She’d spotted a barn nearby and decided they needed to go back to it for shelter. It was too dark to be out anyway, too late. The sun set a while ago, which meant those things were moving. Like the cockroaches that used to invade her foster mom’s projects apartment, they moved around when nobody else did.

When they arrived at the barn, she pried open a door on the side that was barely hanging on. The dog crept through first, and she followed on hands and knees and pushed the boards back into place.

“Don’t move,” a boy said, pointing a rifle at her.

She raised her hands slowly to show him that she wasn’t armed. Behind him, a younger girl came up and clasped the bottom of his jacket. They looked similar enough to be siblings.

“We’re just cold, is all,” she explained and grabbed her little dog up.

“Let them stay, Peter,” the girl said.

Chapter Fourteen

Roman

“It’s only a few of them,” Wren whispered as she knelt on the floor near the glass sliding doors in Terry’s dad’s bedroom. She was peeking through the blinds and draperies. The house was cold as if the power had gone out a while ago, along with the heat source from the furnace system.

“How many?” Jane whispered back from her side of the bed where she was pulling on her boots as if she knew they were going to have to flee.

“Shh,” Elijah said to Wren’s dog and patted her side as he held fast to her collar.

Roman was standing on the bed and spying out the windows at the top of the wall. He could see the back deck and the small, short incline that led up into woods behind their house. To his right were the barns down the other way. It was pitch dark over there. It was also hard to see much because of the snow still falling. He hoped those things didn’t get into the barn and loot their food supplies they’d foraged. That would be devastating.

“I don’t see any…wait,” Roman stated but stopped. He paused when he saw movement, branches rustling. Then he ducked down swiftly. “Two coming out of the woods.” Roman rose back up and spied again. “Maybe two more. Not sure.”

“Roman, should we make a run for it?” Jane questioned softly, the nerves showing in her quivering voice.

“No, not yet,” he answered. “We’re safest inside. I don’t think they know we’re in here.”

“They’re definitely scoping the place out,” Wren commented softly. “I’ve seen this same crawler three times. They’re circling the house.”

As if on cue, one of them slammed into the wall outside or threw something against it. They all four jumped, and Wren grabbed her dog’s jaw to clamp it shut. The last thing they needed was for Dixie to start barking. She wasn’t exactly a little yipper. Her bark could rattle the window frames when she wanted it to.

It grew