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

and sounded like a low-caliber engine running in first gear.

He’d set the walkie-talkie on the lowest decibel, and it bleeped a second before Elijah’s voice came over, “You guys hear that?”

Roman reached over and picked it up, “Yeah, we heard it.”

“Heard what?” Steph asked through her radio.

Then they probably all heard it. Or heard them. Shrieks and calls like cats in heat, growls, and screams like hawks. Roman ran to the door and double-checked the lock.

“We’ve got company,” he said into the walkie-talkie.

“Fuck! Alex is in the shower,” Steph panicked.

“Stay where you are, Steph,” he instructed and was met with silence.

When Roman got his shoes on and his belongings packed, he sat on Jane’s bed, noticing she’d already done the same. She slipped her hand into his. There was no way he was rejecting her right now. He didn’t care in this moment if she’d kissed ten Noah’s. He wasn’t letting go of her.

Chapter Twenty-five

Wren

She’d planned on seducing Elijah tonight, which was probably going to be easy to do, but those thoughts were completely gone now. They hadn’t had sex again since that night, and the opportunity hadn’t come. They’d been very busy at the farm, the Miller kids were always around, Elijah was staying up super late to keep a watch on the place when Benjamin Miller wasn’t, and his brother had come home to stay a few nights to catch up on chores around the farm with Elijah. When he’d gone back to Maureen’s, Wren had started her period, and Elijah hadn’t tried to initiate anything anyway. She was starting to wonder if he had regrets.

“I have to!” he hissed at her.

“Elijah, no!” Wren begged-ordered as Dixie pranced from paw to paw. The dog was on edge. When she was like this, it was never good. “You can’t go out there. We don’t know how close they are or how many.”

“But Alex.”

She nodded with understanding as she pulled on her coat in case they had to flee. Her hair was even still wet. Staying in their rooms seemed like the smartest idea, but one of their own was out there. Worse still, it was his brother.

“Okay, we’ll go together.”

The radio made that little buh-bleep sound, and Roman’s voice came over, “I’ll go after Alex, so he doesn’t get ambushed. We’re closest to him down here.”

“He doesn’t have his gun,” Stephanie whispered into the walkie-talkie. “It’s here.”

“Got it,” Roman said. “Over.”

“Over and out.”

Elijah packed his belongings into his backpack and pulled it on. He, too, must’ve realized they could possibly have to make an escape.

A loud crash somewhere, possibly on the same floor or possibly one floor above them, assaulted her ears. She had to stop herself from covering them. It sounded like a skid full of bricks was just pushed down a bowling alley into the pins instead of a ball.

“I thought this place was empty,” Elijah complained what she was thinking.

“I know. We didn’t see any of them, not even a single sign of them being in here.”

“Think we drew them in? It’s not like we locked down the whole hospital.”

She shrugged and wished she could open their door to peek down the hallway. Elijah must’ve felt the same because he was inching closer to the door.

“We shouldn’t have spread out this far apart,” Wren lamented.

“I don’t think they’re out there,” he said, pressing his ear to the glass panel on the door.

He waited for Wren to come to the same conclusion, and she nodded. Then he pried the door quietly, silently open and stuck his head out.

“Clear,” he whispered. Then he jumped. “Jesus!”

Stephanie was there panting, “Sorry, I didn’t want to stay down there by myself. I think they’re coming. We gotta move.”

She shoved Alex’s guns into Elijah’s hands. She was already jogging away, so they both followed, leaving their door open. Dixie was right on her heels and whining. “Shh, girl. Easy.”

Wren kept a tight grip on the big dog’s leash. Elijah was carrying a rifle, but she only had a pistol. He was now also carrying his brother’s short barrel shotgun and his .45 in his waistband that Stephanie handed off.

Her heart was hammering. Then she heard some of those things somewhere behind them. They didn’t sound far. It left her to wonder if they’d heard them walking around on this floor or using the showers and bathrooms. They’d been a bit careless, and it probably cost them.

They stopped long enough to pick up Jane and then shuffled along towards that family bathroom suite they’d all used tonight. She just hoped Alex had taken his clothes with him. Stephanie was obviously carrying his bag.

Almost there, three night crawlers rounded the corner in front of them. They’d just come from the hallway they needed to pass. Their group was probably three intersection hallways from Alex, who she hoped was hiding in the bathroom and had heard the crawlers on this floor. The infected ones were only about two hundred feet from them, which ultimately cut them off from Alex. Dixie growled.

“Shh!” she said through gritted teeth.

Stephanie darted into the nearest room, and she and Elijah followed. Jane went in the other direction, though, and they lost her. She was just gone. There one second, gone the next.

“Jane!” she whispered fervently.

“I think she went in the room across from us,” Stephanie also whispered as they shut the door silently. Elijah turned the lock.

“I don’t think they saw us,” Elijah said.

Wren knelt to soothe Dixie so that she wouldn’t bark. Her whining stopped, and she lapsed into frightened, submissive silence like she always did when those things were that close. A warning whine or pawing at the ground was one thing to help out her humans, but to take on one of the monsters was beyond her scope of ability, and she was probably aware of that. Wren was aware that the monsters couldn’t see well, but they sure as hell could hear, so she was praying they hadn’t heard them run into the room.

They all held