Apokalypsis Book One

  APOKALYPSIS

  Book 1

  Kate Morris

  2019

  Ranger Publishing

  Copyright © 2019 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: RangerPublishing@gmail.com.

  First Ranger Publishing softcover edition,

  Ranger Publishing and design thereof are registered trademarks of Ranger Publishing.

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  Ranger Publishing can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact RangerPublishing@gmail.com or contact the author directly through KateMorrisauthor.com or authorkatemorris@gmail.com

  Cover 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: 9781091806245

  This new series is dedicated to all of my loyal McClane Apocalypse fans. Thank you so much for supporting that series and falling in love with the McClane family as much as I did. Hopefully, you’ll enjoy this new series that puts a spin on the typical apocalypse genre and shows us another side of what could be.

  Kate Morris

  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

  Life was precious. People used to say things like that all the time, but none of them realized how true that saying would turn out to be. Life was precious, indeed. Each person in the room had lost someone or everyone.

  They huddled in front of the low, crackling fire in the small fireplace trying to stay close to one another and keep warm. They were cold and scared, terrified to be more precise.

  Outside, a screech owl called out to its friends, unaware of how horrifying his nightly conversation sounded to the humans in the house in front of the fire. A few of the people in the room even startled at the noise. Every little sound made people jump now. Every noise a potential threat. Every reverberation in the air a possible harbinger of danger. The howling wind caused the windows to rattle, which also made people edgy. One of them rose to check the window latch to make sure it was secure. Only one of them had the courage to do so.

  Then there was silence. Sometimes silence was even more fear-inducing. Just straining to listen and wade through the stillness was often stressful and nerve rattling. The not knowing was sometimes as bad as the knowing.

  A commotion, a racket of some kind banging on the roof caused all of them to look up. Was it one of them trying to get in?

  Chapter One

  September 2062

  She parked her truck in the last spot available in the furthest row out in the parking lot, not because it was the only empty space in the whole parking lot but because she didn’t want to park near anyone else.

  “Ready to face the lions?” her friend, Destiny, asked.

  Jane smirked, grabbed her backpack from the floor and answered with one of her standard dry replies, “As usual, I’m breathless with anticipation.”

  Destiny chuckled with good humor and camaraderie as they got out.

  Jackson High School wasn’t exactly on Jane’s list of most favorite places to be in the world. Neither of them liked going there, but it wasn’t like either of them had a choice. They both lived in the school district. Destiny’s parents wanted her to have the ‘total public school experience,’ and Jane’s couldn’t afford to send her to private school if they’d wanted to. It didn’t matter to her. It wasn’t like she was going to fit in anywhere else any better, not once the other students found out about her family and their past. She would never have been invited over for swim parties, asked out on dates, or offered to go to the mall with anyone.

  “Think Mrs. Somers will give us a pop quiz in English today?” Destiny asked as they walked across the blacktopped parking lot toward the school.

  “I don’t know. Are you ready if she does?” she asked her best and only friend.

  “Ha, are you kidding? You know I hate English. It’s my worst subject,” she said honestly and pushed a wayward brown curl behind her ear.

  “You can do my Calculus, and I’ll take your English tests for you,” Jane offered with a grin.

  “I wish,” she said. Then she groaned as she looked to their right.

  “What?” Jane asked and stopped short. She didn’t need to inquire further. “Oh, I see. Just ignore them.”

  “Yeah, that always works so well for us,” Destiny said jokingly.

  “Well, violence is never the answer,” Jane teased in a falsely stern tone.

  “Says who?”

  They stepped up onto the concrete sidewalk that led to the side entry door, the one that most students went through if they drove to school instead of taking the bus. She was grateful to own her truck, even if it was twenty-five years old, rusty, and didn’t exactly blend in with the other expensive cars in the student lot.

  “I don’t know,” Jane said. “Someone. Probably Buddha. Someone with a lot of patience.”

  Destiny laughed loudly and gaily the way she always did, which was one of the reasons Jane liked her so well. She was carefree with her feelings and easy to laugh. It was not something at which Jane excelled. They were opposites in so many ways but still kindred spirits.

  “Look what the cat dragged home,” Stephanie remarked as Jane and Destiny passed her and her clique of like-minded friends.

  Both girls kept on walking, but Jane made the mistake of looking directly at Stephanie. It wasn’t a good idea. This sort of eye contact only invited more comments.

  “Trash,” Stephanie jeered. “Just trash. That’s all I see.”

  “Steph,” her boyfriend, Aaron, said, trying to dissuade her behavior.

  Jane knew it wouldn’t stop her, though. Stephanie was a cheerleader, basketball player, and overall bitch on wheels. She was tall, athletically built, and a horrible human being. She was also very beautiful, which made her even more confident and definitely very vain, although Destiny always remarked that she didn’t think Stephanie was all that pretty. Compared to Jane, she was a supermodel. She’d tormented Jane from her very first day of school here, even though she’d never given the girl a reason to do so. She was just that kind of person. She preyed on the weak. And Jane was certainly one of the weak. She never fought back. After so long under that type of treatment, she was used to it. Numb to it.

  “Got a date for homecoming, Jane?” Stephanie asked snidely.


  This made Jane glad she was a senior. She’d made it to her final year and would graduate soon. Then she’d never have to see any of these people again, hopefully.

  “Yeah, right,” one of Stephanie’s friends chimed in. “As if someone would ask her out. Get real.”

  “Is that right, Jane?” Stephanie kept going, now following her and Destiny as they entered the building. She was dressed in her cheerleader costume since it was Friday and they were holding a pep rally, something for which Jane felt was ridiculous that the school forced attendance. Anything would’ve been better. Except for maybe gym class. That would definitely be worse. For her.

  She was also glad that the senior class lockers were close by. It meant she could dump her books, get ready for class, and ditch Stephanie and her merry maids of terror.

  “Stephanie, just drop it,” Destiny attempted to reason with her. “Leave us alone. Doesn’t this get old?”

  “The only thing that gets old is the fact that this trash still goes to our school,” Stephanie said, getting louder.

  “Why do you still go here?” Destiny asked her directly. “You could go to Regent. Why don’t your parents send you there?”

  Destiny was talking about a costly private school in the area, but Jane just wanted her to stop talking to Stephanie at all. This wouldn’t help. It never did. The hell-on-wheels cheerleader was not going to stop until she drew emotional blood. She was like a cheerleader vampire. Jane often wondered if she had hormonal imbalances or something because she went off on tangents a lot, most of them usually aimed at her.

  “Because my mother sits on the township trustee’s board, idiot. My family pays a lot of money in taxes, unlike some people.”

  Aaron said, “Regent doesn’t have a cheer squad.”

  “Shut up, Aaron!”

  She sneered at Jane and purposely stepped in front of her right when Jane reached her locker.

  “Excuse me,” Jane requested quietly, hoping she’d move.

  “It’s trash like you that brings down this community, too,” she kept on.

  “Yeah,” one of her friends agreed.

  “That’s not true,” Destiny said, defending her. “That doesn’t even make sense, Stephanie.”

  “As if you could ever get a date to homecoming, you loser,” Stephanie said to her again, ignoring Destiny.

  Why was this so important to her? Who cared about some stupid dance anyway? Jane never participated in anything run by the school, whether it was sports, dances, or fundraisers. She was a social outcast by all accounts. She never went to parties, was never invited to one, and hung out mostly with Destiny or just stayed home on the weekends.

  “Excuse me,” Jane asked again and slipped around her.

  “You and your low-rent grandmother need to move out of this community and sell that property,” Stephanie said. “Go live in the hood where you belong, white trash.”

  “You know, Steph,” Jane said, feeling her cheeks burn with anger at the vicious and unnecessary attack of her grandmother. She could and did put up with the girl’s behavior for the last four years but attacking her grandmother was simply going too far. She looked up at the tall blonde. “I am going to homecoming.”

  “Oh, yeah? Right!” Stephanie said in a mocking, exaggerated tone and even snorted.

  “No, I am,” Jane said with superiority.

  “With who? Your imaginary boyfriend, loser?”

  “No, with your dad,” Jane countered and watched her words settle in on the girl. Her father was a cheater. Everyone knew it, and everyone talked about it. Never to Stephanie’s face, of course, but even Jane had heard the gossip. Her mother apparently lived in a state of perpetual denial because she’d remained with him long after she found out. Even her own grandmother knew about Stephanie’s attorney father who cheated on his wife frequently until she’d finally divorced him four years ago. Now she had a step-father who was a doctor that she complained about incessantly.

  “You bitch!” Stephanie screamed and lunged toward Jane.

  However, someone stepped in between them just in time and saved Jane from probably getting clobbered by the Amazonian, screeching banshee behind him. It was Roman Lockwood. He ran in the same popular clique as Stephanie. She hadn’t seen him this morning. He usually hung out with Stephanie and her friends out by their BMW’s, Mustangs, and Land Rovers, but Jane hadn’t noticed him this morning by their cars where that group loitered before the first bell.

  “Easy, Steph,” he said and held his arm out so that she couldn’t get around him to Jane, even though she was trying in earnest. Then he looked down at Jane since he was facing her and frowned.

  “Get outta’ my way, Roman,” Stephanie shouted at his back and shoved.

  It only served to push Roman into her, jostling Jane and causing her to bump the back of her head into her locker, which in turn made him frown and turn swiftly to face Stephanie.

  “She’s just messing with you because she does have a date. She’s not going with your dad. Don’t be silly.” He paused and looked over his shoulder at Jane and winked. Then he turned back to face the crowd. “She’s going with me,” he said confidently.

  Jane’s jaw just about hit the ground. She looked up at him, but he was looking at Stephanie instead. Destiny bumped her elbow and gave her a questioning expression. She, in turn, offered one of her own to her best friend. Stephanie’s confusion was written clearly on her face, too.

  “What? You can’t be fucking serious, Roman,” Stephanie scolded judgmentally.

  “Yep, we’re going to homecoming,” he announced just as confidently the second time and stepped back to stand beside her.

  “Why are you always stickin’ up for her, Roman? You’re such an ass,” Stephanie insulted.

  This was news to Jane. As far as she knew, he’d never stuck up for her even once before this. He was a lot quieter than his outgoing and typically rambunctious friends, but he never spoke up to defend her.

  “Maybe I just think your time would be better put to use doing something more constructive,” he advised. “Maybe take up reading.”

  Stephanie said, “You dick. Get real!” Then she stepped closer and said to Jane, “Look, bitch, you ever talk about my dad again, and I’ll kill you.”

  Jane just sighed impatiently and offered the other girl a look of pity. She really did feel bad for her. So her parents got divorced. Big deal. But this girl had major problems.

  “Sorry,” she apologized quietly anyway.

  The girl looked surprised and plunked a hand on her hip. “Yeah, well you better be, bitch.”

  She lived in a mansion, smoked a lot of weed, and from what Destiny told her also did coke, and dressed in all the latest fashions, but Stephanie was a miserable girl. She was pathetic and sad and hid behind a lot of pain. However, she was also a psychotic freak who loved bullying her, and Jane hated her. But what she’d said was very rude about her father. Also, she didn’t want to get drowned in the school pool or beat to death and shoved into her locker. A simple apology would hopefully cool the Amazon’s heels.

  “It doesn’t feel so good, does it, Steph?” Roman asked rhetorically.

  “Fuck you, Roman,” she retorted angrily.

  “Come on, Steph,” Aaron implored and tugged her arm. Aaron and Roman were good friends. He clearly didn’t want his girlfriend coming between their friendship.

  Stephanie actually growled at Roman, glared, and fled with her posse, their high heels clicking in their retreat. Jane just scowled with distaste at her back.

  “Sorry about that,” he said to Jane, who wasn’t really paying any attention to him but watching Stephanie leave and wondering if she was going to get a bucket of pig blood dumped on her head during lunch.

  She stepped around Roman and started working the combination to her locker. She mumbled, “You didn’t have to do that, ya’ know.”

  “Hey, I gotta go,” Destiny said. “I’ll see you in third period.”

  Jane nodded to her only
friend, who regarded Roman unsurely before leaving. Roman was certainly not a friend. Destiny got along with most everyone, but she only hung out with Jane. She often wondered why her friend ever chose to befriend her when Jane had come to live with her grandmother four and a half years ago. She certainly could’ve run in the same social circles as the Stephanie’s of their school. Destiny’s family was wealthy. Her father owned his own company that manufactured heavy equipment. She was pretty and smart, even played volleyball on the team with Stephanie. Jane didn’t get it, but she never questioned it, either. Without her only friend, she would’ve been even more miserable when she’d moved here.

  She turned back to her open locker and hung her backpack from a hook inside as she emptied out what she didn’t need and replaced it with books she did.

  “Steph is just a blow-hard. You know that. She’s messed up,” Roman said, trying to talk down the absurdity of his friend.

  Jane just nodded with raised eyebrows to let him know that she was already aware of the situation.

  “Hey, anyway, about the homecoming thing…” he mentioned.

  Jane cut him off, “No, it’s cool. I know. You were just trying to defuse the situation. Thanks, but for future reference, I don’t need your help. It’ll only make things difficult for you with your friends.”

  “No, I…”

  He was cut off again, this time by the bell marking the start of their day.

  “Thanks again,” Jane said and slammed her locker shut. She slung her backpack over one shoulder and hurried away. “See ya.”

  She avoided eye contact and kept going with her head down. This was how she got through most days. She kept her head down, stayed out of the danger zones, and steered clear of the hostiles. High school was a lot like war. In order to make it out alive, one simply needed to learn some basic survival skills.

  She managed to make it through almost her entire day unscathed, even in the one class in which two of Stephanie’s friends shared the same space. During Government and Civics class, Mr. Hawkins went over current events like he always did at the beginning of the period.