Read Apocalypsis 01 - Kahayatle for Free Online Page A

didn’t care either way.  
    My dad would have liked Peter.   I could still remember how he’d admonish me when we did our survivor training.   “Efficiency!” he’d shout, like an overly enthusiastic drill sergeant.   “That’s going to save your life, Bryn!”   I reached up absently to stick my finger through the ring on my necklace, letting it hang there for a second.   I’d doubted him before, but I wasn’t now.   We were going to have to be completely anal about using every square inch of space on our backs to haul all this crap to our final destination.
    “Okay, so here’s what we’re taking; now, where are we going?” Peter asked.
    “Well, as far as I can see, we have a few choices.   We can go to the mountains, the plains, the desert, or the swamps.”
    “Swamps?   No way,” said Peter.
    “Why not?”
    He rolled his eyes.   “I can’t believe I have to say this … snakes?   Ever heard of them?   Gators?   I want to run away from meat-eaters, not towards them.”
    I jumped up, remembering a book I’d forgotten.   “Be right back.”   I returned in less than a minute and handed Peter the small handbook that had been in my dad’s home office.
    “Oh, great,” he said, in a not-very-happy-sounding voice.   “A snake book.”
    “Yes, and it tells you not only how to identify snakes, but how to treat snake bites, too.”
    “I’m pretty sure the treatment these days is to bend over and kiss your own ass goodbye.”
    I laughed.   “Don’t be so negative.   You’re a science nerd.   Maybe you can figure out how to make anti-venom.”
    He shrugged.   “Maybe.”
    I looked at him suspiciously.   “I think, in a sick way, I just got you to consider living in a swamp.”
    Peter smiled.   “I’m not going to deny it.   The idea of being able to do something like that is intriguing.”
    I shook my head.   “You’re nuts.   You do realize that to make anti-venom, you have to milk a friggin poisonous snake, right?”
    “Yeah, but that’s the job for the assistant.”
    “Pfft.   Don’t tell me, let me guess … I’m the assistant.”
    “Well you’re definitely not the scientist.”
    I shoved him with my arm, causing him to tip over sideways.   Then I continued, “Anyway, as I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted, we have some choices.   But regardless of where we go, I think our mode of transportation should be mountain bikes.”
    “Why?   I mean, why not motor-scooters or something?   They’re faster.”
    “Too noisy.   Yes, we could go faster and farther.   But if there are actual … canners or whatever out there, we need to move more quietly.   And we need to travel when no one’s out.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean, between like four in the morning and seven.”
    “That’s not a lot of traveling time each day.”
    “Better safe than sorry.   And maybe there will be places where we can alter those times a bit, like when we’re in the middle of nowhere.”
    Peter nodded his head.   “Okay.   I agree to this.   So we’re going to travel by bike, with backpacks, hauling all this stuff.”   He looked at me.   “Where are we going to go?”
    My brain was moving a thousand miles an hour, calculating variables and taking everything I could think of into consideration.   My dad had told me to go where no one would find me.   He said to make myself safe and find a few friends who’d be there to help me re-build and to watch my back.  
    “I think we should go to the mountains,” I said.   I could still remember the trip I’d taken with my dad several years before, up to North Carolina.   It was on my list of favorite places ever.
    “But it snows there.”
    “That means there’s water.”
    “It also means frostbite and difficulty finding food.”
    “Okay, Mr. Voice of Reason, where do you think we should go?”
    Peter sighed.   “I don’t even want to say it.”
    I quickly flashed my fist and forearms out in a