The Indiana Apocalypse Series Read online

  I shrugged, looking away. Her response evoked two more very important questions: Who the hell was I and who the hell was Quinn?

  CHAPTER FOUR

  I glanced back at the first woman I’d seen when I came back to life. At least, I thought I was still alive. Not that anything anyone had said yet made any sense.

  “Sara?” I asked, focusing tightly on her appealing eyes. She nodded once.

  “Morgan?” I continued, pointing at the strawberry blonde. She nodded and smiled.

  “Sasha and Liv?” I finished. They both nodded, but looked confused.

  Okay, I had all the players. Not that it meant anything to me. Then came the tough question.

  “Who’s Quinn?” That brought three blank stares from the others and a wide smile from Sara.

  “You are,” she replied, touching my chest with her palm. “Quinn Reynolds.”

  “That doesn’t sound familiar,” I whispered. And it really didn’t. “Are you sure you don’t have me mixed up with someone else?”

  Four attractive women shook their heads at me. Their waving hair made me wonder if long hair was back in fashion. Not that I could recall who I was or where I was or what year it was.

  “You’re Quinn Reynolds of Terre Haute, Indiana,” Sara continued. “Sasha and I lived down the street from you until I was about 12. Then we moved to the other side of town.”

  I raised my eyebrows as I considered her story. If it was true, I didn’t recall any of it.

  “You picked me up when I was 10 after I’d fallen off my bike,” Sasha added, staring at me as if it should have made sense. “You ran me home in your arms and I bled all over your white shirt. My mom said you had to throw it away after that because all the blood would never come out.”

  She sounded sincere, like she meant every last word. But none of it registered as a memory anywhere in my mind. Not that I could think of many memories at that point. I was still trying to come up with my actual name.

  Then it hit me. All I needed to do was pull my driver’s license out and I’d have all the answers I needed.

  I tried to sit up, but four pairs of hands wouldn’t allow me to.

  “No, no, no,” Morgan chided. At least I think it was Morgan. Yeah, the strawberry blonde. “You sit up too fast and you’ll pass out. One bump on the head is enough for now. I’m not sure I can stitch over the stitches that are already there.”

  “Are you a doctor?” I asked, laying on my back again.

  She took a spot near my knees on the couch. “I was in medical school when the old world ended. Second year.”

  I nodded slowly, finally realizing the problem. I’d been taken in by four mentally deranged young women. Morgan had just proven she was bat shit crazy.

  “Medical school,” I repeated. “Old world ended.” She nodded at both phrases. Perhaps she had been in medical school, until they kick her out for stealing hallucinogenic narcotics.

  I peeked back at Sara. “Is there anyone around that isn’t…you know…crazy?”

  Again she smiled. “That was some nasty bump you took on the head. It’s like it’s cleared all your memory from your—.” Quickly she looked up at the others.

  “Maybe we should start from the beginning,” the one named Liv said. At least I think it was Liv, long hair and all.

  “If you help me find my driver’s license…” I began to Morgan, pointing at where my back pocket should have been. What had they done with my clothes? And why was I in baggy athletic shorts and a blue t-shirt? Huh. “…it will go a long way in helping out I think.”

  For a moment, she glared at me as if I’d said something offensive, though for the life of me I couldn’t believe anyone would be offended by something so common as a license. We all had them, didn’t we?

  “This is pretty extreme,” Morgan said to someone. I wasn’t sure who she might be addressing, since my eyes were closed. “I think you need to get a little more rest before we lay this all on you, Quinn. You’re gonna be a little shocked at what we have to tell you. It might even freak you out actually. What’s the last thing you remember?”

  That was an easy one. “Getting shot and falling down.”

  “And before that?”

  “Hiding behind the outhouse,” I replied. At least she grinned at that one.

  “And before that?”

  What the devil was she after? I opened my mouth to reply, but nothing came out. I must have had a brain fart. I thought for a moment and tried to speak again, but there was nothing to say. I couldn’t remember one damned thing about myself or my life. Not even the tiniest nugget came to mind. Shit!

  CHAPTER FIVE

  They made me rest, as in close my eyes and actually try and rest. Morgan claimed too much visual stimulation might not be good so soon after a head injury. Before I did so, I made them promise to tell me everything after my nap was over. And I meant everything.

  Reluctantly, the two sisters agreed with my request. Morgan didn’t think it was a good idea to go too far too fast. She said something along the lines of making my brain explode. Thankfully, she said it with a smile.

  I didn’t see Liv’s response. She was already busy in the kitchen of the small stick-frame home. Claimed she had dinner to make. From the sound of her voice, I could tell she sided with Morgan more than Sara and Sasha. But I had no idea why.

  The problem was that I had no idea of anything. All I could recall, before waking up to four angels, was the smell coming from the outhouse and being shot. Well, then there was that part about not believing in God. However, I didn’t know if that was something I dreamt up when I opened my eyes or if it was a core belief I held from the past.

  Not having a memory was one thing. The young women’s collective responses to my questions — most of which had yet to be answered — was another.

  When I mentioned my driver’s license, I noticed each of their faces tense. It was like they’d never heard of such a thing. Okay, that was good. I remembered I had a license and drove a car. That made my list of things I recalled.

  What kind of car did I drive? I thought about that long and hard and nothing came to mind. Maybe it wasn’t a car; perhaps it was a truck. Was I a truck kind of guy? Huh, I still had no idea.

  Since I didn’t know my name, or where I was from for that matter, I wasn’t convinced the four ladies actually knew me. I looked like someone else, I decided. I was some other guy’s doppelgänger. That had to be it, because not a single one of them looked like anyone I’d ever known.

  That revealed another problem though.

  I couldn’t recall a single face from my past. Not one friend or family member came to mind. All I saw was a crowd of blurred-faced people milling about in the far recesses of my head. There had to be someone. There just had to be.

  “I brought you some soup,” Liv said kindly, setting it on the floor. “Morgan, help me sit Quinn up so he can eat something.”

  Immediately, I waved my hands at the sweet soul. “I can sit up myself. I think I’ve done it sometime in the past.”

  Morgan appeared at the end of the couch. Her arms were crossed tightly over her chest and she wore a skeptical scowl.

  “I don’t want you passing out,” Morgan chided. Okay, she wasn’t the sweetest of the bunch. “We’re gonna help. And if you have to go to the bathroom before dark…well, you’re just gonna have to hold it.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” I replied as Morgan leaned toward me and gently took an arm in her hands. On the other side, Liv rearranged herself and pushed slowly against my shoulders to help me sit up.

  My head began to swim instantly and within a few seconds, I felt the inevitable vertigo. Dammit; Morgan was right.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Liv cleaned up my vomit as if it were no big deal. Morgan hung over me, wearing an I-told-you-so expression proudly. Sara came and helped get rid of the mess I’d made, while Sasha hovered in the distance.

  “Good God!” Sasha exclaimed. “Someone get a window open. That stinks to the high
heavens.”

  Yeah, it wasn’t pretty for me either. I was in the middle of it, after all, so tough luck, sister.

  Liv tenderly cleaned up my face and got a small pillow to set behind my head. I’d thought I’d heard one of them say she was the youngest of the group. Well, for the youngest, she was also the most motherly.

  “Little sips,” she said as she raised the spoon to my lips.

  Whatever she was feeding me smelled like dirt. I wasn’t sure I was all that hungry for mud soup, but Liv kept spooning it into my parted lips.

  “Mostly carrots and potatoes, smashed and ground with some water added,” Liv explained patiently. “We get lots of carrots and potatoes. Some from our garden and some from Mr. Shaklin’s harvest.”

  I heard a hiss from behind where the other three were slurping their dinners. “We aren’t using names yet,” someone scolded. I assumed it was Morgan, since she seemed to have the foulest disposition of the four. “Especially his name.”

  Since the name meant nothing to me, I continued eating. Actually, I continued to be fed. Liv dabbed a rough cloth napkin at the sides of my mouth when I let some slip out. And while she didn’t smile all of the time, she did so every time we made eye contact.

  “So, I know you,” I whispered. She smiled and nodded. “I have to be honest; I don’t remember you. How do I know you?”

  Her eyes darted to the table before she answered. Someone there must have given their approval for her to respond. Most likely Morgan.

  “I’m Sara’s best friend,” she replied. “Her and I have been as close as two people can be since third grade, when we were eight.”

  Okay, that helped a little. And it gave me an opening for another simple question. “So, how old are you now?”

  “She’s 27,” someone answered directly behind us. I looked back and saw Sasha. “Sara’s 28 and Morgan and I both just turned 30.”

  “Is Morgan related to you, Sasha?” I almost had all the players figured out, not that it would mean anything really; not until I got my senses back. “Maybe your cousin or something?”

  “Are you trying to remember, or just guessing?” she asked, rounding the couch and sitting next to me on my right, our elbows nearly touching.

  “I’m shooting in the dark,” I admitted. “None of you look or seem familiar to me. I’m sorry. I still think you have me mixed up with someone else.”

  Sasha sighed and frowned. “First off, Morgan’s my best friend. We met in junior high and have been close ever since. Secondly…” She paused and reached for my chest, pressing something with a fingertip. “You have your medical alert tag still. I remember it from when you used to mow your lawn without a shirt on. You’re allergic to penicillin.”

  I let her pull the chain to bring the ID out from its hiding place. She looked at it first, almost sadly, and turned it to face me.

  And as she had said, it listed my drug allergy. And my name: a Mr. Quinn Reynolds.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  After I finished eating — okay, Liv feeding me — they began their tales in a round-robin fashion. They spent a lot of time in their past lives, as they called it, and not a single word brought back any memories. But the last story Morgan told made me lose my breath.

  “The apocalypse?” I repeated in question form. I tried not to sound overly skeptical when I replied, but come on; that sounded a little far-fetched.

  “End of times,” Sara said sadly, sitting in a kitchen chair she’d brought into the living area. “Middle of the night and bang; all gone.”

  I glanced around the small shelter. Kerosene lamps, wood cook stove, no signs of wiring or electricity, no refrigerator, no computers or radios…nothing that I expected to find.

  “I guess that explains the old west look you’re keeping here,” I joked. However, none of them smiled.

  “It was six years ago,” Morgan added quietly, looking down at her folded hands. “Everyone thought things would be fine in a few days at first. That turned into a few weeks, which became a few months, which became never.”

  “We thought it was local for a while,” Sara added rapidly. “Then we heard from travelers it was all over. As in the whole country. Everyone got hit.”

  “Nuclear war?” I asked unable to make sense of any of it.

  “I’ve always thought it was an EMP attack,” Sasha answered. “They attacked us and we attacked them.”

  I pondered what she’d said for a moment. Was she saying what I thought she was?

  “Who’s ‘them’?”

  Sasha shrugged and stared at me. It was that moment I saw the fear in her eyes, in what the world had become.

  “Russia, North Korea, Pakistan…take your pick,” she replied.

  “Except,” Morgan interrupted. “There’s a story we’ve been hearing a lot lately. Last year or so. There’s this guy in central Wisconsin—”

  “He doesn’t know anything,” Sasha tossed out.

  “It sounds like he does, Sasha,” Morgan quipped before looking back at me. “He says he knows what it was. Claims he saw it coming even. But no one in the government would listen to him.”

  She let her words hang amongst like a cloud of smoke. The pause began to gnaw at my aching head.

  “What does he say happened?” I asked. “According to what you’ve heard.”

  “Solar flares combined with some kind of space radiation,” Morgan answered, rising and strolling to the kitchen to fill her water glass. It was then that I noticed the place didn’t have any running water.

  “Not that it really matters anymore,” Morgan continued, stretching her back. “Whatever happened happened. And now we’re all stuck like this.”

  The sadness in her voice made me empathize with her. While I still wasn’t convinced the world had changed into the early 1800s overnight, my surroundings suggested a different tale.

  “Maybe I can go exploring a little bit tomorrow morning,” I said, hoping to cheer the four of them up a little. Instead of smiles, I received shocked expressions.

  “You can’t go outside during the day,” Morgan scolded. “If any of them see there’s a man here, they’ll come and kill you. Then they’ll punish all 12 of us.”

  “There’s two more houses with four women each in our little cluster,” Liv added, stroking my arm. “One lady’s husband came looking for her last year and when they found him, they hung him from a nearby tree. Mr. Shaklin feeds and clothes us. He takes care of all our needs. And all we have is two rules to follow: no leaving and no men.”

  “He says we’re vulnerable,” Sara claimed. “Says he can’t protect us from the wolves, as he calls them, if we allow them near.”

  It sounded harsh and pretty unbelievable to me. But if their stoic expressions were any indication, it must have been the truth.

  “And what do you all do for him?” I asked.

  The room went silent and Morgan pushed away from her spot. “We all need to get to bed; another day of work tomorrow. Liv can explain more while we’re gone. Being the youngest, she mostly takes care of this place and our needs. Cooking, washing, cleaning and such.”

  “Let’s get him to the outhouse,” Sara said, also rising from her chair. “Then we’ll tuck him in between me and Livy tonight.”

  Morgan shook her head at the younger woman. “He’ll have to sleep with me and Sasha for the next few nights. I need to wake him every few hours to make sure he’s okay.”

  That didn’t seem to make Sara happy, but she still nodded her agreement with a slight frown.

  “I can just sleep on the couch,” I stated as three of the four helped me stand. Oops. The world began to swim and I swayed slightly. I felt the hands tighten on my arms.

  “You’d better do what Morgan says,” Liv answered as we began our march into the warm, humid night air. “She’s in charge; so just do as she says.”

  I agreed only because if a fight broke out and they all let go of me, I’d end up on the wood floor. At that moment, I decided that Liv and I were going to do
a lot of talking the next day. Somehow, I was going to figure things out; even if I had to pry crucial information out of the sweet, long-haired lady.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  I woke the next morning in a comfortable bed with women’s garments spewed all over the covers. For as straight and narrow as Morgan, and Sasha for that matter, seemed, neither was overly tidy.

  Carefully I got up and made my way into the kitchen. There I found Liv, waiting for me with a broad smile.

  “There’s a chamber pot in that bedroom if you need to pee,” she said, blushing and looking away as she spoke. “I can empty it while you have some eggs and flatbread.”

  I did as requested and she fulfilled her promise as I took in my first solid food since I’d come to in this strange place. I cut the yokes of the over-easy eggs open and let the yellow goo run into my bread. The first mouthful was the best. It was as though I’d never eaten before.

  “Mrs. Cornell says hello and hopes you’re feeling better,” Liv announced as she returned to the table. “Sadie Harkin says she’ll come help me get rid of any of the blood from the couch later.”

  Her openness shocked me. “Others know I’m here?” Liv nodded and sipped on some kind of weak tea. “Others know you have a man inside your home?”

  Liv gazed at me unashamedly. “Just us women. And no one’s gonna tell. We all take care of one another. When one house gets punished and doesn’t get any butter for the week, the others slip them some. If one of Shaklin’s men try to get any of us alone, someone will run to the big house and mention it to one of his wives. We all look out for each other.”

  “Wait,” I said, dropping my fork on the half-eaten plate. “Wives?”

  “He’s got four.”

  “A man has four wives?” I asked, rubbing the inch-long stubble on my face. I still hadn’t brought myself to looking in a mirror. I wasn’t sure I’d like what I found. “There’s laws against things like that.”