Read Apocalyptica (Book 3): Ran for Free Online Page A

standing behind the group, caught my eye. His raised eyebrow was a question, and I narrowed my eyes back at him just enough to get the point across. Don’t say anything out loud, just do it.
    “Sure,” Jem said. “I’ll update you on our haul once the guys are settled in.”
    I shot him a grin. “Sounds good.”
    The group of women, the youngest still carrying the boy on her hip in a display of strength and stamina impressively close to lifting a car off someone, followed me into the house. I led them to my bedroom and closed the door behind us, gesturing to the adjoining bathroom before taking a seat on the edge of the bed.
    “I kind of lied,” I said, pointing at the bathroom. “Since we still have power, this bathroom won’t run out of hot water. It has an on-demand water heater. So please, take your time.”
    The oldest of them, a black woman who looked to be in her early fifties by her salt-and-pepper hair, touched the girl on her shoulder. “You go ahead, Sandy. Take Connor in there and both of you clean up. We can wait.”
    The girl—Sandy, apparently—bobbed her head and rushed into the bathroom. Nearly gave the kid whiplash when she did it, too.
    “Like I said, I’m Ran.” I put out my hand to the older woman. She took it with both of hers and squeezed.
    “I’m Maria,” she said. “Thank you for taking us in.”
    “I’m planning to make you all work for it,” I said with a smile. “But I’ll be right there next to you.”
    The other two introduced themselves to me.
    “I’m Grace,” said one of them, a thin white woman in her thirties with shoulder-length brown hair. “God, I’m so glad we’re out of that store. The food was okay, but man, it was so stuffy and dark. We had to be quiet all the time, and stuck in there with those guys.”
    I frowned. “Were they a problem?”
    “No,” said the third woman, Lisa. “Not really. It was just really cramped. I mean, you don’t really have much in the way of sleeping arrangements in a grocery store. All of us,” she said, sweeping a hand around the room, “slept in the office. The guys crashed in the break room.”
    We chatted until Jem tapped on the door a few minutes later. I made sure to point out the entrance to the bunker before leaving the room. “There are clean clothes down there. We made sure to grab a little bit of everything.”
    Closing the door behind me, I motioned for Jem to step away from my room. We walked through the back door and stood together on the tiny porch.
    “Why did you want to separate them?” he asked. “Did you see something I missed?”
    I shook my head. “Just wanted to double check and make sure everything was kosher. Also, splitting up the group is a good way to make sure they don’t set themselves up as an insular tribe within a tribe.”
    Jem blinked at me. “Really? You thought about that ahead of time?”
    “You would have to, if you had to edit a textbook and five drafts of a doctoral thesis on group dynamics,” I said. “I also didn’t want to let the men down into the bunker before I had a chance to make sure the weapons were all under lock and key.”
    Jem pursed his lips. “You don’t trust them.”
    I goggled at him. “Do you? I don’t know them, Jem. At all. They’re complete strangers. I’m happy to give them somewhere to sleep and food to eat, but I’d be a complete fucking moron to assume they’re wonderful people who would never do anything wrong. Because people are never known to react badly in shitty situations, right?”
    Fact: people are well-known for reacting badly in shitty situations.

19
     
     
     
    The core group—me, Jem, Carla, and Tony—made the decision to keep my illness from the others. There wasn’t any sinister motive beyond not scaring anyone and my desire for privacy. I’d have told them if it mattered, but since the symptoms grew weaker every day, there didn’t seem to be any point.
    Two days after the boys brought in the new arrivals, we had a