Rewrite the Apocalypse dream (by Dee Cari) novel Chapter 171

Chapter 171 Briggs Gets Bitten

Finished

Jonna smirked, eyeing the faint wisps of steam still rising from his knuckles. “Good. Just remember you’re a human flamethrower now, Sparky, not a campfire. If you accidentally singe off my eyebrows out there, I’m leaving you for the zombies.”

Briggs let out a rare, gruff chuckle, the sudden burst of heat from his palms fading back beneath his skin as he readied his weapon.

She turned back to the window, her expression sharpening as she looked toward the brick office building “Alright, lunch is over. Let’s move.”

They slipped out of the highrise and down into the freezing rain, instantly dropping into a low crouch as they hit the asphalt. The one-block sprint to the brick building was anything but empty. A tight pack of shuffling zombies noticed the movement and surged forward, their guttural groans echoing through the downpour.

“Make a path!” Briggs hissed.

Joanna reached over her shoulder and drew the weapon Kailee had gifted her. The double-edged sickle sword caught the dim gray light, its curved, lethal blade gleaming despite the rain. As the first wave of corpses lunged, Joanna spun in a fluid, sweeping arc. The weapon was impossibly sharp; with a single, brutal strike, she clean-beheaded three zombies at once. As their bodies fell, Joanna flicked her wrist, seamlessly pulling the glowing cores out of the collapsing monsters and snapping them straight into her hidden storage space. She moved like a cyclone, using the sickle’s unique hook to snag necks and sever spines with terrifying ease.

Beside her, Briggs fought with an entirely new, devastating rhythm. He was half deadly soldier and half unleashed elemental. He ducked under a decayed arm, driving his knife into a zombie’s jaw, then instantly extended his left palm. A short, hyper-concentrated burst of flame erupted from his hand, vaporizing the head of the zombie pressing in from his flank. He seamlessly pivoted-using traditional military disarms to break limbs before finishing them with a quick, scorching touch that turned dead flesh to ash. Every single time a zombie dropped dead around them, Joanna used her power to instantly pull its core into her space. He didn’t let the flames roar too loud, keeping them small, efficient, and lethal.

They cut a bloody swath through the street, leaving a trail of coreless corpses behind them. The entrance of the brick office building was now only ten feet away. Joanna cleaved through the final blocker, shouting over the rain, “Briggs, the door! Go!”

Briggs lunged for the handle, his hand sparking with heat to warp the lock, but he didn’t see the mutated corpse lurking in the deep shadow of the doorframe.

A rotting figure lunged out with unnatural speed. Before Briggs could bring his knife around, the creature’s jaw snapped shut directly on his shoulder. The teeth tore deep through his tactical vest, sinking into flesh.

Briggs let out a guttural roar of agony as dark crimson blood instantly poured out, soaking his clean jacket.

Before the creature could tear away another piece of flesh, Joanna vanished. She materialized a foot to the left in a sharp flash of displaced air, her sickle sword whistling through the rain as it sliced the zombie completely in half. She snapped its core into her storage before the pieces even hit the concrete, grabbed Briggs by his good arm, and half-dragged him through the shattered entrance of the brick building.

She kicked open the first heavy wooden door she found, pulling him into a dusty, abandoned accounting

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Chapter 171 Briggs Gets Bitten

Finished

office. The rain hammered violently against the exterior glass as she dropped Briggs into a leather office chair, his face rapidly draining of color.

“Hold still,” Joanna ordered, her hands already moving with frantic precision. She pulled her knife and cut his blood-soaked vest and shirt away, baring the ruined shoulder.

The wound was ugly. Dark crimson blood poured down his chest, welling from a deep, jagged puncture where the teeth had bypassed his armor. Briggs groaned, his teeth gritting so hard they threatened to shatter as the burning pain of the virus began to spread through his nervous system.

“Leave me, Joanna,” Briggs muttered, his voice dropping into a thick, ragged rasp. He leaned his head back against the chair, his hands trembling as faint orange sparks sputtered uselessly on his fingertips. “Just take the jewels and go. The virus… it’s fast. I’m probably going to turn.”

Joanna slammed her hands onto the armrests of his chair, leaning in until they were inches apart. “Shut up, Briggs,” she snapped, her eyes flashing with a fierce, unyielding intensity. “You’re not dying here. You have to live, if for no other reason than to settle your damn score with Jax. You really want that coward outliving you?”

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