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

and he could hardly see more than a few feet past the glass door. As he turned to follow Wren, though, Roman thought he saw something move in there, which was impossible. He did a double-take and looked closer. It was certainly disconcerting, but he was pretty sure he’d spotted something move on the other side of the pool on the patio where the lounge chairs were located.

“Is it locked?” Wren asked, causing him to startle.

“What?” he whispered. “Oh, yeah. It’s locked up. What was the racket all about?”

“Some pounding on the glass doors. Got bored and left. I think it’s all-clear,” she reported.

“Okay,” he softly replied and turned to go. He looked again over his shoulder to make sure the glass entry doors to the pool room were locked. “I’ll catch up.”

Roman rushed back and placed a metal folding chair under the handle. At least if anything came in through this spot, it would cause a loud commotion.

He moved quickly to catch back up to Wren and her dog, and they went upstairs to join the others. Elijah let them in, and they explained the situation.

“They can break the glass,” Jane worried.

She meant the slider doors and windows, but Roman left out the pool room ones. He didn’t like her to worry more than she needed to because she was always a little ball of stress anyways. Besides, he was pretty sure it was just his eyes playing tricks on him with that moving fog and mist in the pool room.

“They won’t,” he assured her. “They’ll lose interest and move on. Why don’t we try to get some rest? I’ll stay up and keep watch.”

“Leaving the room?” Wren questioned.

“No, but I think we’ll hear if they get in.”

Wren said, “Dixie’s on edge, so I doubt if I’ll be able to sleep, either.”

He pulled on his boots and noticed Jane already had hers on. They all took his lead to mean something and began packing up their things and placing them in their backpacks just in case. It felt ominous.

A scrambling sound on the roof above them was quickly followed by a series of grunts and then what was presumably one of them sliding down the roof and falling off.

Then the sound of glass breaking somewhere alerted them all. Each of them, including Dixie, froze in place. Nobody even breathed. The dog didn’t even bark.

“Let’s be ready to move,” Wren said in a hissing, fervent tone as she jammed something into her backpack and zipped it shut.

“Jane, put on your coat,” he whispered and helped her.

Roman had thought they’d be safe in the house, but he might have poorly misjudged. He helped her shrug into her coat and then her pack. Then he took care of himself and finished lacing his boots.

Dixie growled low and softly. “Shh,” Wren commanded.

Then they heard it, the signature scream. One of them, possibly more or would soon be more, was inside the house somewhere. By the tone, it sounded like it was probably on the lower level below them.

“What do we do?” Jane asked again.

“Bailout,” Wren said and immediately went to the window. “Let’s light this place up and ditch out the window.”

She wasn’t trying as hard to be quiet, so Roman knew she was ready to go. He was in agreement and grabbed a newspaper off the dresser he’d spotted earlier. Strangely, it was from months ago with the front page reading, “Could the U.S. Be Facing a Coming Pandemic?” He had to refrain from rolling his eyes. The answer to that was a definitive ‘yes, duh.’

“Here, Roman,” Elijah said, bundling a comforter. “Stuff the newspaper inside this, and we’ll light it.”

He didn’t even have a chance to consider that they were about to torch his friend’s house. He’d torch the White House if it meant keeping Jane safe from those things.

A second glass pane downstairs broke.

“Let’s go, people,” Wren complained, not even trying to hide her Aussie accent now. “Jane, watch Dixie.”

Jane took Dixie’s leash without hesitation and even cooed to the dog to help settle her. Wren eased open the bedroom door, and Elijah carried the bundle of kindling into the kitchen area down the hallway. Roman followed and added a cardboard box along the way. Another crawler screeched downstairs as if it were stuck or caught up on something. There was a thrashing sound that went along with that theory. He didn’t even have a chance to investigate it or look over the railing, though.

Elijah placed the comforter mess of kindling inside the cardboard, and Roman removed the tiny can of lighter fluid from his pack and sprayed it evenly around on it. Wren brought forth a stack of blank sheets of printer paper she must’ve found somewhere along with what looked like a curtain.

A commotion downstairs followed by two of them growling and then screaming sent a hard shiver up his back. He knew the others felt the same.

Wren pushed the box against an open pantry cupboard they’d cleaned out earlier and opened the top door, as well. He assumed she meant to ignite the cupboards with the box. Roman read her mind and squirted a little more lighter fluid on them. Then she ignited her lighter, lit the newspaper in her hand, and tossed it onto the mess in the box. Within seconds there was a deep “woosh,” and they were all hurrying back to their room.

“What now?” Elijah asked.

“Give them a few minutes,” Roman said and locked the door.

“I saw one,” Jane broke in. “I saw it outside the window running past.”

“I saw two downstairs and heard another somewhere else down there,” Elijah told them. “Think this’ll work?”

“Yeah, but we’re gonna have to make a run for the barn,” he said. “A fast one. We should all make sure we’ve got our safeties off.”

They all double-checked, everyone except Wren. He indicated she should, as well.

“It’s never on,” she said pointedly.

A loud popping sound went off somewhere in the kitchen, and he indicated they should get moving. Wren