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

kids out when they threw a molotov cocktail through the front window before I could shoot them. He took them to the equipment shed.”

“Avery?” he whispered a bit hysterically. “She’s alone up there? Damnit!”

“There’s only three left that I can’t account for.”

Alex indicated that they were hunkered down in an area between the vehicles on the street and the small sheds and chicken coop. They were going to have to push forward. The tricky part would be not getting shot by Jane’s dad. He explained it to Alex. Tristan indicated they should flank wide and split up.

He trekked behind through the snow towards the equipment shed.

“Abraham, it’s just me!” he called quietly. “Don’t shoot!”

“Tristan?” he got in reply in the pitch-dark barn from her brother.

“Yeah, I’m flanking. Stay here with the kids.”

“Yes, sir,” Abraham answered from the recesses of the equipment barn full of implements, which was what Tristan assumed they were hiding behind. Those enormous pieces of equipment were all heavy-duty steel, so it was a good spot.

He went as quickly as he could, given the depth of the snow, and made it down into a field of cut corn. Prowling around on corn stalks sticking up out of the ground would normally be noisy, but they were padded with probably eighteen inches of snow, so he was able to move quietly. He was close to them. He could hear them talking, probably planning. Alex was supposed to be going towards the road and down into a ditch so that he didn’t take on friendly fire from either himself or Gyles. Tristan waited a moment until he got the flashlight signal from his friend.

When it came, he tracked a bit closer until he could make out his enemy more distinctly. They never saw him coming. One spotted Alex’s flashlight and alerted the other three. There were four of them left, not three as Alex had guessed. No matter. Tristan pulled the trigger quickly and in rapid succession, taking out two. Alex got one with a longer range, much more difficult shot. The last one screamed as his friends were falling like lead balloons around him. Then he did precisely what Tristan knew he would do. He ran. However, the man didn’t get far. He was shot by Gyles as the coward was in the middle of jumping the ditch onto the road. He was catapulted into the air and landed with a strange thud in the ditch, which was no way to die, but no less what the scumbag deserved.

Tristan waited, the only sounds his slightly labored breathing. Nothing moved. Nobody screamed or yelled to one another. Nobody moaned in agony at their wounds. The children were not crying in the equipment shed, from what he could tell. It was just deadly silent again. A full three minutes passed, and finally the silence was broken by the sound of a low moo from one of the cows. He knew it was safe to call everyone in then, which he did.

When he spotted Avery coming out of the barn, he rushed to her. She nearly slammed into him and clung onto his midsection. He was angry, wanted to throttle or scold her, but Tristan just held her against him a long minute. Then he set the safety on her rifle and took her hand.

The Miller children, along with Noah, Abraham, and Kaia, came out of the equipment shed and joined them as Gyles and Alex also came forward.

“Is everyone okay? Anyone shot?” he asked

“No, we’re all okay,” Abraham answered.

The Miller kids did not seem okay at all, but from what he could tell, it wasn’t from being injured. They were in a bad state of shock. They were just involved in a terrible firefight, and their home was ablaze. They all smelled like smoke, Kaia and Abraham included. They even had soot on their faces. The only clean one was Noah, but he also sported a full beard now, so it was hard to see if there was soot on his face. Unfortunately, there was just no way to salvage the children’s home. There would be nothing left by morning. Whatever they’d owned inside was now destroyed. He noticed they were each holding a backpack, clearly a bug-out bag or whatever they’d grabbed in a split second before fleeing. The oldest one, Ben, was carrying his little brother, who had his face buried in his brother’s jacket. The two girls were wide-eyed and frightened. Four more orphans of this new war. Then he heard one of those things scream somewhere in the distance.

“Let’s move,” he ordered and took Avery’s hand tightly in his. Tristan wanted to take the time to run around and check the downed men to see if any were still alive so that he could question them, but with those things moving toward the farm, likely brought in by the tall flames engulfing the home and the sounds of gunfire, he had no choice but to go. Their safety meant more than his interrogation.

They piled into their vehicles, and Alex requisitioned one of the pickup trucks that still had the keys in the ignition to haul two of the Miller kids. Ave road with him and Noah and Gyles. Her brother drove the Jeep with his sister. They drove straight home, and Tristan wondered the whole way what was going to become of the Miller kids and their farm. He was too distracted to even reprimand Avery for putting herself in danger like that. Instead, he had to focus on keeping everyone safe. That seemed to be the thing that stole his focus most hours of most days now anyway.

He dropped Gyles and Noah off at their cabin and made sure it was safe. They were greeted by Stephanie and Roman’s little brother, Connor. She was carrying a shotgun, which made him feel a little better, and the yellow Lab was at her side in the doorway. The girl had a story, a past that betrayed the