Apokalypsis Book One

by Kate Morris

  “Calm down,” he berated himself in a firm, rational tone, something his father would’ve used at a time like this.

  When he got back to their community, the guard was not at his usual place in the little brick building, but Roman had his remote and opened the gates without assistance from the guard shack. This was the first time he knew of when the guard wasn’t present. Whoever was supposed to be on their shift was either sick, taking care of sick family, or didn’t give a shit to come to work. Roman couldn’t find fault in the logic. He wouldn’t report to a job anymore if he had one, either.

  In his pocket, his phone buzzed. It had done this a few times while he was gone, but Roman ignored it. He’d needed to stay on track. The most important thing tonight was getting his little brother’s medicine. Once he parked in the driveway, Roman checked his phone. It was all from Jane. He dialed her up.

  “Where have you been?” she demanded without a greeting.

  “I’m home now. I’m fine,” he answered.

  Silence.

  “Are you there?” he asked after a long moment.

  “I’m coming over,” she said and hung up.

  He got out and went in through the garage to disable the alarm system. Outside, the wind and rain were picking up. He wasn’t sure which door Jane would come to, so he watched out the front window for her car. He jumped when someone banged on the French doors leading out to the back patio and pool. It was Jane. Roman rushed over and let her in. She was soaked.

  “Why’d you come to the back door?” he asked and received a sound slap to his left cheek for an answer. “What the fuck, Jane?”

  She flung herself against his chest next, stunning him even more. “I was so scared. Where were you? Why didn’t you answer your phone?”

  He recovered from the slap the moment he realized she was frightened and upset. She was just out of control with worry. Plus, her slap hadn’t actually hurt all that much. He’d fought tougher.

  “Hey, it’s okay,” he said and rubbed her back, pulling her closer, and not caring that she was getting him wetter, too. Roman kissed her forehead and gently set her away from him. There were tears on her cheeks. He wiped them away with his hand. “Let’s get you dried off. Did you walk here?”

  “Yes, I climbed the wall,” she answered.

  “Jane,” he reprimanded, then thought better of it. He was already in deep shit with her. He knew from watching his parents fight over the years to tiptoe when women were angry. They weren’t always the most rational people when they were upset.

  Instead of arguing, he took her hand and led her to the laundry room off of the kitchen where he pulled down two towels from the cupboard above the dryer.

  “Take off your wet jacket,” he urged and did the same. Then he threw their wets in the dryer and started it. She stood there shivering. “Here,” he said as he brought two dry hoodies out of a cupboard behind them. He kept stuff like this for him and Connor on this floor, as well as a supply of dry towels and socks in case they came home from bike rides soaked from a sudden rain shower.

  Jane pulled the hoodie on and zipped it up. She looked like an adorable, drowned rat in his hunter green hoodie that was way too big for her. He’d never worn that one before. It was just one of the many items his mother bought for him over the years, some designer label or another that he had no intention of wearing. Roman grabbed a black one and then began rubbing some of the moisture out of her damp hair with a towel.

  “Where were you?”

  “I had to get an inhaler for Connor,” he explained as Jane took the towel from him and leveraged herself up onto the dryer to sit. Then she resumed rubbing her hair. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I knew you’d want to go with me, and I didn’t want to put you in danger.”

  She nodded and said, “I’m sorry I hit you.”

  He grinned lopsidedly at her. “You did? I thought a gnat landed there.”

  Jane scowled, “Don’t do that again. You said we’re in this together, remember? You can’t just go and change the rules on me, Roman.”

  He stepped closer and touched her arm. She scooted to the edge of the dryer and leaned into Roman. He wedged between her legs and hugged her. She admitted they were in this together. That was the closest thing to a commitment he’d gotten from her yet.

  “Sorry,” he said into the base of her warm neck.

  “Don’t do that again,” she warned. “You can’t- you can’t just come into my life like some great savior and then ditch me. I’ve never had someone in my life like you, Roman.”

  He nodded and kissed her neck, feeling goosebumps rise there. He wasn’t sure if it was because she was cold or perhaps something else. “I know. I’m sorry.”

  She raised her head and nodded. Roman brushed fresh tears from her cheeks. Jane sniffed.

  “There’s gonna be times when I gotta do stuff without you,” he said and shook his head when she opened her mouth to argue, “No, don’t. I’m serious. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere, but I don’t want to purposely take you into a dangerous situation.”

  “But what if something happens to you?” she asked softly.

  “It won’t,” he said. “And even if it does, I want you out of it. I need someone to take care of Connor. I know you would. And your grandmother needs you, too.”

  “Who’s going to take care of you?” Jane asked with large eyes that exposed her fear.

  He paused and sighed. If this situation were different, he’d be over the moon that she was sitting on the dryer in his parents’ home and he was standing between her legs and holding her close. Her lips seemed redder tonight, maybe because she was cold. It caused a basic instinct within him to awaken, and Roman considered it more closely. There might not ever be another moment like this, just the two of them, alone in the dark and quiet, in safety, without sickness infecting one or both of them or people trying to kill them.

  “Jane,” he whispered hoarsely.

  Roman ran a hand over her damp hair and cupped the back of her head. He put a tiny bit of pressure there and pulled her closer. Jane tipped her head back to look up at him. Her lips parted with surprise at what she must’ve seen in his eyes. He took full advantage and pressed his mouth to hers. It was brief, just a mere pressing of his lips against hers, but she jerked back. Her hazel eyes grew larger, and she tipped her head to the side to regard him as if she weren’t sure of his motives.

  “Jane,” he repeated and lowered his hand to her rear where he tugged her firmly against him. She was so much smaller than him, tiny even. And although she was sitting on the dryer, that didn’t even make her eye to eye with him. She was easy to pull against him, and something deep within him liked that. She didn’t jolt back from him this time when he pulled her closer, either. She actually leaned into him. Roman felt as if he could conquer an entire country with the feeling of triumph that came over him. Both hands lowered and dug into the top of her bottom planted firmly on the dryer as he captured her mouth with a kiss that possessed and surprised them both.

  He could tell she’d not been kissed often because she didn’t seem to know what to do. That didn’t matter to him. He led the way because she was shy. That was just one of the many things he liked so well about Jane Livingston. Roman pushed his tongue through her closed lips and explored her mouth at his leisure. She let out a soft little cry, causing him to clench her bottom with both hands more tightly. Her own hands rose between them and rested on his chest gently. A second later, he was tugging her more assertively against his center, and she was gripping his shirt with both fists. He’d thought about her for so long but had never imagined in all of his many long imaginings that Jane would be like this. She was so demure and gentle and kind and beat down by their peers Roman never would’ve guessed she could be so boldly passionate. He’d imagined holding her close, had quite a few detailed and very vivid dreams about just that and more over the last few years. This was way better.

  His brain immediately brought forth an image from earlier o
f Jane in her pink bra in that room in the barn. He hadn’t even thought about it at the time. He was too worried about her to register lust. Now he was thinking about it, though. He was remembering the swell of her full breasts above the delicate lace of that bra, and it made him groan lightly.

  “Roman,” Connor said from the doorway.

  Jane jerked back as if caught plotting world domination with a band of her minions, and Roman simply stepped back from her calmly and slowly.

  He smiled and said, allowing his hand to slide from her bottom around to her arm and down to clasp her hand, “What are you doing out of your room?”

  “Mom let me out,” he said. “She’s sick.”

  Roman’s heart sank. He took Jane’s waist in his two hands and hefted her to the floor. Then they both took off leaving Connor behind as they went to his mother’s bedroom in the back of the house. She was on the floor near the bed and not in it.

  “Mom!” he cried out and rushed toward her. “Jane! Stay back.”

  She stopped and backed up toward the door. He didn’t want her to get sick if his mother had the infection.

  “Roman,” Jane called softly, “don’t touch her. Let me get your mask and gloves.”

  He nodded, knowing his responsibility to Connor and Jane and her grandmother, too. Jane ran out of the room and came back a few seconds later with a fresh pair of gloves and a new mask. Roman slipped into his gear, then rushed back to his mother’s side.

  “Mom, can you hear me?”

  She rolled from her side facing away from him to her back and looked up. “Roman?”

  “Yes, I’m here,” he said with a sigh of relief. Maybe she was just drunk. “Turn on the lights,” he called over to Jane and Connor, who did as he said by flipping the wall switch. “Mom, tell me what’s wrong.”

  “Just the flu, Roman,” she said. “There were a lot of people at the company in San Diego who had the flu. It’s nothing. Just get me some Tylenol, dear, from the shelf in my medicine cabinet. And a sleeping pill. Fetch me those.

  Roman ignored her and lifted his mother onto the bed, propping her head on a pillow. She moaned.

  “Tell me your symptoms,” he insisted as he pulled out his phone and started scanning the website the doctor from the CDC said would be listed.

  “Just a fever and body aches, Roman. No big deal.”

  “Nausea? Vomiting?”

  “Yes, as with any flu.”

  He opened the nightstand drawer, knowing it was his father’s side and that he kept a flashlight in there.

  “I’m going to be late for my meeting,” she mumbled, half asleep.

  “Connor, go to bed!” he yelled behind him. “Jane, get him out of here.”

  “Yes.”

  He turned back to his mother and listened as she rambled on.

  “If I don’t make it down to Tallahassee, they’ll give this contract to Renalt.” It was a competitor of her company’s, he knew. “Tell your father I’ll be late to dinner tomorrow. All they have left are redeye flights.”

  “Got it,” he said and used the flashlight to look closely at her eyes. As he suspected, they were bloodshot. She continued to murmur things that were nonsensical, so Roman stepped away to speak with Jane, who had returned to the doorway. “I think she’s infected. I don’t know what to do. If she becomes violent, I don’t want Connor to see.”

  “I know. Me, neither,” she agreed with more concern for his brother than he would’ve suspected her of having. “We should take her to the medical site at the football stadium.”

  “No, I don’t want to leave her there not knowing what’s gonna happen or if they’re taking care of her.”

  “Roman, that’s what they said we should do. Is she showing the symptoms?”

  He nodded jerkily and chewed the inside of his cheek with indecisiveness.

  “But we have to. She could hurt herself or Connor or you.”

  “Or you,” he said and hung his head. His mind was racing. He didn’t know what to do. What Jane was proposing was the right thing, but this was his mother, not some stranger.

  “Roman, we need to take her before she gets worse,” she encouraged. “If she falls into a coma, I don’t know how to care for her in that condition unless you do.”

  He didn’t, but that didn’t make the decision any better and certainly not any easier.

  “If not the medical site at the football field, then the hospital, Roman,” she urged.

  Nodding in agreement, he said, “No, I’ll take her to the stadium. If she has RF2, I don’t want Connor to see her like that.”

  “Why don’t you let me take her?”

  “No,” he said. “Can you just stay here with him?”

  “Absolutely,” she agreed with a nod and moved into him.

  “Stay back,” Roman said, taking her shoulders in his hand and keeping her at arm’s reach. “My clothing, anything could be contaminated.”

  He turned back to his mother on the bed, who was mumbling still, and nodded. He had to do this in order to keep them all safe, even her.

  “Mom,” he said as he leaned over her but didn’t get a response. “Mom, I’m taking you to a place where you can get the proper care for this.”

  It felt wrong to say this not knowing whether or not it was the truth. For all he knew, they could be exterminating people at the high school who were brought there for care treatment. Just because the government said they were going to take care of people who were infected with RF2 didn’t mean they would.

  Roman lifted his mother carefully and carried her to his car. Jane followed the whole way and helped him get the doors. He waved from behind the wheel and watched the night swallow her whole as he left.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  It was nearly four in the morning when Roman returned. He was not driving his car, however. He was on foot. She knew because she’d watched him walk up to the front door which she flung open.

  “What happened? Where’s your car?”

  “Gone,” he said stoically. “Stolen. Somebody stole it.”

  “Stolen? How?”

  He was soaked to the bone from the rain but managed a shrug.

  “Roman, come in and get changed and dried off,” Jane said, standing back from the door. He looked exhausted. He came in and locked it. She led the way upstairs and held onto his hand. It was frozen in hers. “What happened?”

  Roman pulled clothing out of his dresser drawers; sweatpants, a new t-shirt, and underclothes. He used a remote and lit the gas fireplace in the corner. Then he proceeded to strip in front of her. Jane turned her back to him to give him privacy, although he didn’t seem to mind.

  “Talk to me, Roman,” she said.

  “After I shower,” he replied, and she heard the door shut a second later.

  He came back out ten minutes later dressed in boxer briefs only. She couldn’t look away, even though it was wrong to stare. She’d never seen a boy her age in that state of dress. Certainly not Roman Lockwood, who was built more like a man than a boy anyway. He was broad-shouldered like his father but taller. His stomach muscles rippled, and his thighs seemed thick. He wasn’t as bulky as the football players at school, but he wasn’t thin, either. She’d heard many comments over the years from girls at school about Roman and his good looks and his body, especially his ‘cute butt’. She’d never looked at him for more than a nanosecond because she hadn’t wanted to get caught and called out in front of everyone. Now she couldn’t stop.

  “I- I washed your mother’s bed linens and blankets, and wiped down the whole house with bleach water,” she told him, trying to snap out of her state of gawking. “I checked the CDC website. That’s what they said to do. I used a lot of Lysol, too.”

  “You shouldn’t have touched the sheets or any of it,” he growled.

  Jane frowned and replied, “I was just trying to help.”

  He sighed, slicked back his thick, damp hair with his hand and said as he pulled on the black sweatpants, “I know. Sorry, I kno
w you were, and I appreciate it. I just don’t want you to get sick is all.”

  “I wore my mask and gloves while I did it. It’s just that I was so worried, I had to do something,” she confessed. “Is she okay? What took so long?”

  “Just getting her checked in there,” he said and hung his head. Jane rose from the sofa near the window and went to him. Something was very wrong. She slid her arms around his waist and hugged him, trying to provide some sort of comfort. Pressing her cheek to the middle of his bare chest felt odd but comfortable at the same time.

  “Did they take her?”

  He nodded and pulled back. Roman sat on his bed, so Jane followed.

  “It’s RF2,” he said with defeat. “They tested her blood while I was there and came out to tell me. They had all of us family members placed in corrals to wait for results. It was so crowded.”

  “Oh, Roman,” she cried out and put an arm around his shoulders. “Oh, I’m so sorry.”

  “They said they would keep her and let me know how she is in the morning, but they wouldn’t let me stay.”

  She had to do something, say something hopeful, “Maybe she’ll get better, Roman. Hey, don’t worry. She could get better. They said some people are recovering.”

  The words felt like lies the second she spoke them. The recovery rate was somewhere around twenty percent.

  A pair of low-altitude helicopters flew over, vibrating the windows as he said, “She wouldn’t even wake up when we got there. I tried to wake her. I had to carry her in. I think that’s what happened to the car. I don’t think I locked it.”

  “Why didn’t you call me? I could’ve come and got you.”

  He shook his head vehemently and said, “No, I wanted you to stay here with Connor, not come there. It’s not that far, just a few miles. I just jogged it. Remember? I told you I like to go running. It wasn’t anything.”

  Something in his eyes let her know that it wasn’t anything. Something happened. She was sure of it.

  Jane snatched up his hand and said, “It’s okay. Don’t worry about the car, okay? It’s not important right now. Let’s not concern ourselves about a car. You still have your parents’ vehicles in the garage downstairs, and I have my truck. It’s more than we need.”