Rewrite the Apocalypse dream (by Dee Cari) novel Chapter 211

Chapter 211 Leo Is Better

Finished

Fifteen minutes later, the convoy was loaded. Joanna turned to Briggs, who stood with Will and the team.

“Everyone but Jake, Jolie, and Julian are coming with me,” Joanna said. “I’ll leave the rest with your group. Since we have permanent comms now, just message if anything goes wrong.”

Briggs gave her a deep look and nodded. “Stay safe, Joanna. See you in 8 hours.”

The crew climbed into Briggs’s Military truck and Ryan’s RV. Engines rumbled as they drove away, but at the edge of her property, Will braked hard and put the lead truck in park..

Joanna motioned everyone to stay put and teleported to the front as Briggs climbed out, alert.

At the front of the property, on the main road, stood an old pickup truck idling with a rusted livestock trailer hitched to the back.

Joanna saw Leo step out of the driver’s side. Through the truck window, his zombie aunt sat perfectly still, staring down blankly at her own lap.

Joanna gritted her teeth, her jaw tightening. She didn’t need a permanent communication link-she’d read enough tactical situations to know where this one was heading. The weirdo had positioned himself between them and the exit.

Leo, still not walking like a normal person, glided smoothly across the dirt toward Joanna and Briggs.

“Joanna,” he said.

Joanna’s eyes widened. Normally, Leo barely spoke, and when he did, he stuttered and hesitated. Just now, his voice sounded perfectly clear.

“Why are you here, Leo?” Joanna asked, her tone sharp. Every instinct told her this was a complication she didn’t have time for. The zombie aunt alone was reason enough to say no.

He cleared his throat. “The bush helped. Even my brain felt better after eating Aunty’s favorite bush.”

Joanna narrowed her eyes, a memory clicking into place. “Did you eat the raccoon stew your aunt made a while back?”

Leo, looking a little surprised, nodded slowly. “Only a little.”

Joanna’s stomach dropped. The puzzle pieces were coming together. Maybe he wasn’t just eccentric- maybe he was so weird because he had been slowly getting infected by the virus all along.

“My aunt calmed down too,” Leo continued, oblivious to Joanna’s internal alarm. “She understands me better now.”

Joanna shot a highly doubtful glance at the zombie aunt sitting in the truck. The woman hadn’t blinked once. Reaching out with her brain comm, Joanna instantly messaged RJ inside Ryan’s RV. RJ, have Warren and Michelle come over right now.

Leo noticed her tense posture and shifted uncomfortably, looking a little scared. He swallowed hard

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10:42 am M

Chapter 211teo is Better

Finished

before finally making his pitch. “I don’t know how you knew about the stew, but I was hoping we could join you guys. I want to see if my aunt can be cured fully.”

“Leo,” Joanna said softly, her voice dropping some of its usual hardness. “I don’t know if your aunt will ever be fully healed.”

Leo just looked at Joanna with pitiful, sad eyes.

Joanna sighed internally. At least he was wearing a shirt this time, though his expression remained tightly guarded.

Just then, Warren and Michelle approached the property line. Both of them froze, their expressions turning instantly nervous as they caught sight of Aunty Zombie sitting completely still inside the truck cab.

Joanna tilted her head toward Leo, addressing Michelle and Warren. “If you guys want to study him and his aunt, I will let him come with us. However, you two will be completely in charge of them. Also,” she turned her sharp gaze back to Leo, “your aunt needs to wear a muzzle at all times unless she is eating. Does she only eat humans?”

Leo rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, she did before. But after I mixed some leaves from that bush into the one of the guys you killed, and afterwards she actually ate the goat stew I made. I honestly think she’s getting better.”

Michelle and Warren exchanged an astonished look. A zombie accepting cooked food and plant matter was biologically unprecedented.

Briggs groaned softly, muttering just loud enough for Joanna to hear, “Great. First a bloated pigeon federation, now a zombie who eats veggies. This trip is getting better by the minute.”

Michelle and Warren eagerly agreed, practically vibrating with scientific curiosity at the chance to study the two subjects.

Joanna reached into her storage space, pulled out several heavy-duty dog muzzles she had grabbed during the pet store raid, and handed them to Leo. She gestured toward the rusted livestock trailer hitched to his truck. “Are those your farm animals in there?”

Leo smiled, a bright, boyish expression breaking across his face now that he knew he was officially coming along. “Yes. And I dug up the last three bushes, too.”

Joanna let out a long sigh, rubbing her temples. She turned and handed Leo over to Briggs to get his truck and trailer properly integrated into the convoy line.

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