Rewrite the Apocalypse dream (by Dee Cari) novel Chapter 162

Chapter 162 Thieves At The Eldon Galleria

Finished

The biting November wind howled through the cracked concrete canyons of Eldon, carrying the unmistakable scent of stagnant rot. Standing in the hollowed-out lobby of a high-rise apartment complex, Joanna and Briggs kept close to the shadows, staring directly across the empty street at the sprawling, black

mass of the Eldon Galleria.

The mall was entirely dark and dead quiet. In the early days of the outbreak, the living had learned a brutal, permanent lesson: noise attracts zombies. Out here, a misplaced footstep or a loud whisper was an immediate death sentence.

Briggs adjusted his grip on his rifle, his knuckles white against the cold steel. He pointed up toward the second story of the mall.

Behind a jagged, shattered pane of storefront glass, a lone scout was posted, pacing back and forth with military rigidity. The lookout constantly peered down at the asphalt, his eyes scanning up and down the desolate street before looking back toward the tree line.

Below the scout’s perch, a few zombies shuffled aimlessly across the cracked asphalt. Their limbs moved with a jerky, unnatural rhythm, their jaws snapping faintly at nothing as they drifted through the freezing November gloom. They were local strays, a constant hazard, but easily bypassed if one stayed silent.

“Look at the horizon,” Briggs muttered, his voice dropping into a raspy whisper that barely carried past Joanna’s ear. “We have another hour, maybe less, before the sun comes up.”

Joanna looked toward the east, where the deep black of the night sky was just beginning to fray into a bruised, dark purple. Her jaw tightened. Time was their most critical enemy. If they didn’t clear out that inventory and slip past the perimeter before daylight fully broke, they could be trapped.

“We move now,” Joanna whispered back, her eyes reflecting the faint, dying starlight. “Keep it completely silent. Let the dead do the talking.”

They slipped out of the apartment lobby, stepping precisely between the patches of dried, crunchy autumn leaves, moving like two ghosts toward the subterranean loading dock while the shuffling shapes in the street remained completely oblivious.

They broke cover and sprinted across the dark asphalt, crouching low behind a rusted shipping truck near the loading dock. Briggs checked the rolling steel doors. “Locked tight,” he hissed. “We can’t pry this without making noise.”

“I’m taking us to the top floor first,” Joanna whispered. “No guns if possible. Kill anyone who could raise the alarm.”

She grabbed Briggs firmly by his tactical vest. The world warped. After three rapid, dizzying teleports, they materialized inside a massive, pitch-black hallway on the top floor. The only light came from a flickering fire burning inside a rusted trash can further down the corridor.

In the amber glow, the silhouette of a guard appeared. He was leaning against a concrete pillar with his back toward them, casually smoking a cigarette.

Briggs moved like an assassin. With a burst of terrifying speed, he launched forward and vaulted completely over a heavy bench. He crossed the distance in a split second, striking from the shadows. One hand clamped over the man’s mouth while his other fist drove into the base of the skull. The cigarette dropped,

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09:50 Wed, Oct 7

FMD.

Chapter 162 Thieves At The Eldon Galleria

Finished

and the guard collapsed instantly. He never saw it coming. Briggs caught the limp body and dragged it into the dark.

Joanna stepped out from the shadows, thoroughly impressed. She gave him a silent, emphatic double thumbs up.

They crept deeper onto the third floor, which opened up into a massive, echoing concourse lined with multiple department stores. The heavy metal security gates had been pulled down and locked/tight on a few of them, their steel grates glinting in the dim light. From the look of the dusty, undisturbed glass facades up here, the local survivors had likely only cleaned out the bottom floor so far, leaving this upper level entirely untouched.

As they moved past the shadows of an empty restaurant and a sprawling home goods outlet, Joanna’s eyes scanned the massive haul of pristine inventory. This was exactly what they needed.

She turned to Briggs, her voice dropping to a barely audible breath. “Watch my back. I need five minutes”

Briggs nodded grimly, raising his rifle to scan the dark walkways. Without another word, Joanna focused her mind and vanished, teleporting directly through the locked security gate of the first department store to begin the harvest.

Inside the first department store, the air was stale and freezing. Joanna didn’t waste a single one of her five minutes. She ran down the darkened apparel aisles, her palms sweeping across metal racks packed with heavy wool coats, fleece layers, and thermal undergarments. With every touch, the clothing displays simply dissolved into her pocket dimension in absolute, eerie silence-not a single coat hanger rattled, and not a single rustle of fabric disturbed the quiet.

She didn’t stop at clothing. She sprinted toward the bedding department, clearing out shelves of thick down comforters and heavy wool blankets in seconds. In a world without electricity, these were life-saving assets, and they vanished like smoke into the dark.

Outside the security gate, Briggs stood frozen against a structural pillar. His eyes darted between the dark corridors, his ears straining for any sound. Through the metal mesh of the gate, he watched entire sections of the store simply fade into nothingness, leaving behind nothing but decades of settled dust on the tile floor. It was like watching a ghost erase a room in a silent movie.

With two minutes left, Joanna teleported through the adjacent wall directly into the home goods store. She bypassed the decorative items and targeted the hardware section. Crates of flashlights, heavy-duty batteries, portable camp stoves, and propane canisters disappeared into her spatial storage without making a sound.

storage pantry, swallowing sacks of rice, flour, and

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