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

“Hey, wait,” he said in a softer tone. “C’mon.”

“Where?”

He nodded over his shoulder and led her over to the brass pole that the firemen would’ve used to get to the first floor quickly.

“Wanna’?”

“Want to what?”

“Go down it,” he explained and touched the thick, cold pole.

“No, that looks dangerous,” she said hesitantly, which made him chuckle.

“Come on, Jane. Haven’t you ever wanted to slide down a fireman’s pole?” he asked. “Wait, that didn’t come out right.”

She grinned lopsidedly and gave him a funny look.

“I’ll go first. Then you come down. I’ll catch you so you don’t hit the floor too hard.”

Roman showed her how to hold on and wrapped his legs around it. Then he let off and slid down quickly.

“Come on!” he called up through the hole.

Jane hesitated a moment and then mimicked him. She came down fast, too. He caught her at the bottom, and she ended up in his arms. She was smiling as if it had been fun. It was. What kid didn’t want to do this at some point in their lives? He wished again that Connor was with them.

Jane was staring up at him, and his gaze immediately slid down to her lips like it always did. Suddenly, he remembered why they were even in the fire station- because they were looking on the roads for Noah the rat. It was enough to cause him to set her down all the way onto her feet and back up quickly.

“I’ll look around in the back. Meet you at the truck,” he said, handed her the keys, and walked briskly away.

Roman was so upset, he had a hard time focusing on the task of foraging. Usually this came easy. Food, storage, fire starters, medical supplies. Those were the first essentials. The others came naturally. Anything that made their survival possible was always taken, easily spotted as needed. His mind was too distracted, but he did manage to find a few heavy axes, a couple of fireman’s bulky winter jackets, two pairs of heavy-duty rubber boots, and three helmets. He figured they’d be helpful for when they had to safely chop down trees for more firewood in the coming summer in case anyone was hit in the head. Maybe this would all be over by then, but he doubted it.

When he got back out to the truck, he noticed she’d placed a small box of medical supplies in the bed she must’ve scavenged. She was sitting in the cab with her seatbelt on. Roman joined her, and they left without another word.

To fill the obvious and uncomfortable silence, Jane switched on the radio and let the latest emergency broadcast play. They weren’t ten-second blips. They went on for a long time, sometimes as long as an hour. This one was long and not what they’d heard before. They were discussing treatment trials being done with patients who had recovered from RF1 or 2. It sounded somewhat promising for a change.

Jane’s cell phone rang, startling them both. It was Tristan on the other end. She put it on speaker, but there was a lot of static.

“You guys find them?”

“No, Tristan. We’re on our way back,” Jane answered for them, yelling slightly.

“Good. We’ve got an issue here. Hurry home, but don’t drive recklessly. The roads are shit.”

“Did you find the trail?” Roman put in quickly.

“Yeah, we found it. Found something else, too. You’ll want to hear about this. We’re on our way back by horseback, so you should be getting there about the same time.”

The line went dead, as they always did, and Jane pocketed her phone again.

“That doesn’t sound good,” she commented.

Roman looked her way for a moment and saw the worry in her hazel eyes. He longed to pull over and give her a hug but resisted.

Instead, he frowned and muttered, “Yeah.”

When they pulled down Tristan’s lane, he saw three horses still saddled up and tethered to the poles holding up the front porch. They must’ve been in a hurry to get back.

Elijah, Wren, and Alex were also present, as well as Stephanie, but Jane’s mother was not. Her father and Connor were there, though. Seeing his little brother safe always gave him a pause of gratitude.

Avery already had two kettles of what he assumed was hot tea on the table, along with some sort of muffins. They were ushered inside after removing their outerwear and boots.

“What’s going on?” he asked first as everyone settled in and poured piping hot tea and grabbed muffins.

“No sign of Noah?” Tristan asked.

Roman shook his head. “No, nothing. If they left, they’re long gone. What about the trail? Find anything useful?”

Gyles said, “Oh, yes. More than we wanted to actually.”

“What do you mean, Dad?” Jane asked as she blew daintily at her tea before sipping.

Her father looked at Tristan and nodded for him to explain, “We found a trail. It went cold, so we got the horses and tried to figure out which way he could’ve gone. It led out about a mile before it was too covered over with snow. Then we found it again, or think we did.”

“That’s good,” Jane said and got a look from Tristan that let them know it wasn’t. He shook his head slightly, and Jane softly said, “Oh.”

“We picked it back up on top of this ridge,” Tristan continued. “It was steep, so we tethered the horses and continued on foot. It led down into a ravine. Really rocky, old glacier rock formations in the sides of the hills. In the ravine down by a small stream, the trail went cold. Then that’s when we found her.”

“Her?” Jane asked, sitting forward on the edge of her chair. Roman was standing off to the side eating whatever berry muffin Avery had made, which tasted great, and saw the concern on her face.

“Yeah, a girl,” her father explained.

“A girl?” Avery asked, also looking anxious.

“Bianca,” Tristan revealed. “She was dead.”

“What?” Avery screeched and stood so fast her chair nearly tipped over. “What are