APOKALYPSIS
Book Six
Kate Morris
2021
Ranger Publishing
Copyright © March 2021 by Ranger Publishing
Note to Readers: This publication contains the opinions and ideas of its author. It is not intended to provide helpful or informative material on the subjects addressed in the publication. The author and publisher specifically disclaim all responsibility for any liability, loss, or risk, personal or otherwise.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions of thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, email: [email protected].
First Ranger Publishing softcover edition, Ranger Publishing and design thereof are registered trademarks of Ranger Publishing.
For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact [email protected].
Ranger Publishing can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact [email protected] or contact the author directly through KateMorrisauthor.com or [email protected]
Cover design and formatting by EbookLaunch.com
Author photo provided by J. Morris
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file
ISBN: 13-9798717364188
To my fans,
This past year has proven an interesting one. Unfortunately, it ran a little too close for my liking to the pandemic in this series. In times like these, it’s important to discern information being spoon-fed to the masses and do our own research. It was also fortunate that we weren’t all turned into night crawlers, as it were.
I plan on many big, new releases this year and hope you’ll continue to follow along with me as I explore new worlds, characters, and return to those familiar and dear to us already. Thank you so much for your support.
Sincerely,
Kate
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
Chapter Thirty-three
Chapter One
Tristan
He knew where he was going from studying a map he found in the mansion of the human sex trafficker, Jeff, who was recently departed from this earth by his hand. Tristan wanted to go back there tomorrow to raid it for more stuff. The message tonight from the government did little to squelch the unsettling feelings he’d been having lately that this thing was going to drag on for a very long time. The government didn’t have this under control, but he didn’t fault them like most other people were doing, either. The Russian Flu was concocted in a lab by people who meant to do harm with it. There was just no way the United States or any other country could’ve known what they were doing in those labs. Now they only had to learn how to survive it.
“Everyone have a mask?” he asked the others in the truck, in the quiet, dark of the cab. They all answered to the affirmative. “This place is supposedly in town, in a neighborhood, an older one,” he explained. “We should be able to park a few streets over and come in quietly.”
“If the crawlers are sleeping,” Alex pointed out.
“They won’t be,” Roman said. “This is their time, remember?”
“Great,” Stephanie said from the backseat. “As long as we get those girls back, then that’s all that matters.”
“What’s your deal with this?” Alex asked.
“What do you mean?”
Elijah’s brother paused, “You seem like this is personal to you. Your hand’s bandaged from burning it today, but you still wanted to come.”
“Wait, you’re injured?” Tristan asked, unaware of this situation.
“No, I’m fine. I got this. Trust me. Before my dad took off, he used to take me shooting. I know what I’m doing. I’d snag my step-dad’s guns sometimes and go out to the abandoned quarry and shoot. It’s a good way to let off some steam.”
“Geeze,” Roman said with a chuckle, “Remind me not to piss you off.”
“You’re reminded,” she joked. “And to answer your question, yes, this is personal. No girl deserves this. Let’s just leave it at that.”
“Understood,” Alex agreed.
Roman said, “Steph can handle herself. We’ve been going out together. Back when we were still looking for our missing friends, that is.”
Tristan gave a nod but still worried.
He turned onto the side street that went past the urgent care as he had already done earlier this week. This time, he drove all the way to the red light, which was actually working, strangely enough. Of course, it didn’t change to green. It was just stuck on red. He paused only long enough to check both ways before pulling through the intersection and continuing on without worrying about the traffic camera or a cop pulling them over. A few of the street lamps were working, and one of the drugstores actually had lights on inside. Tristan wondered if the government was running a pharmacy now. Not likely. Someone probably forgot to turn them off the last time it was open, or it was running on a natural gas generator. Some stores had those and were still operating with electricity when things started going bad. As long as the natural gas kept flowing, he assumed the generators would continue to work. This county was natural gas-rich, which he knew from patrolling it.
He drove them to the dead-end where the road crossed with the state route. Then he turned left and drove past the old fairgrounds, which Avery said used to draw quite a crowd during fair week. It was definitely abandoned now. One single solitary streetlight inside the fairground’s tall boundary fencing was lit in between two long rows of one-story barns where animals were likely kept during the festivities. The lamp cast an eerie orange glow around the barnyards as a light, misty snow fell. Since he was driving on untreated, snowy roads, he couldn’t look away from more than a second or two, but Tristan was pretty sure he caught the shadow of someone sprinting between those long barns on the fairground property. It was moving very fast, too fast for the average person in these conditions of unsure footing and snow-covered land. Seeing those things always send a preternatural chill up his spine.
He turned left and went down a steep hill, the truck’s rear-end
