Rewrite the Apocalypse dream (by Dee Cari) novel Chapter 225

Chapter 225 The Second Ambush

Finished

Inside the vehicle, the team passed around bottles of cool spring water pulled directly from Joanna’s storage space, gratefully hydrating after the intense fight.

Rachel took a long drink before speaking up, her expression thoughtful. “Joanna, I didn’t feel any active mental control during this attack. But I did feel a remnant of it embedded in their minds. I think the zombie with the telepathic power isn’t even in the area anymore.”

Joanna turned slightly from the front seat, looking back at her. “Rachel, how is it possible for a telepath to command a pack to wait and ambush us when it’s not even around?”

Rachel shrugged, looking down at her hands. “Honestly, I’ve been working on something similar myself, but with very little success so far. I think the telepathic link was acting like a recording. The command was programmed into their brains beforehand, and it just activated the moment we crossed into the area.”

Julian frowned, his hand tightening around his water bottle as the grim realization hit him. “Does this mean it’s waiting for us ahead?”

Joanna stared out the front windshield at the cracked highway stretching into the distance. Rachel’s theory about pre-programmed zombie traps made the hairs on her arms stand up. If the undead were setting psychic tripwires, it changed their entire approach to travel.

“If it’s a recorded command, it means the alpha zombie doesn’t need to risk itself in combat,” Joanna said, her voice tight. “It can just seed these ambushes along major routes and wait for the bodies to pile up.”

Briggs leaned forward from the back seat, his eyes tracking the tree line. “It also means the next zone could be even worse. Westridge is a bottleneck. If someone wanted to guarantee a hit on a convoy, that’s where they’d script the trap.”

“So how do we break a recording?” Julian asked, leaning forward from the back. “Rachel, if we hit another one, can you jam the signal before it triggers the zombies?”

Rachel took another sip of her spring water, leaning her head back against the seat. “Maybe. Now that I know what the residual energy feels like, I can try to scan the area for that specific psychic imprint. If I find it early enough, I might be able to shatter the recording before the zombies even realize we’re here.”

“Then we don’t stop moving,” Joanna decided, checking the dashboard navigation. She looked over at the driver’s seat. “Jake, keep your eyes on the road. If you see a single car pulled across the asphalt ahead, don’t slow down. We plow right through or I teleport us past it. We aren’t giving them a chance to execute their script.”

Jake gave a firm nod, a grin flashing across his face as his knuckles gripped the steering wheel. He pressed down on the gas, accelerating the vehicle and chasing the fading daylight toward the borders of Westridge.

They drove in tense silence for the next half hour, the bleak December landscape blurring into a monotony of frozen fields and abandoned, snow-dusted vehicles. The late morning sun hung low in the pale sky, offering bright light but absolutely no warmth as the bitter winter cold seeped against the vehicle’s windows.

Breaking the quiet, Kailee, who was sitting next to Briggs in the back to stay warm, turned in her seat and started talking earnestly to him.

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Chapter 225 The Second Ambush

Finished

“Hey Briggs,” she said, her breath fogging slightly as she spoke with excitement. “You have fire power, and I have wind. If we combine them, we could create a massive firestorm. Next chance we get, let’s team up and try it out?”

Briggs looked over at her, the usual stern expression on his face softening just a fraction as he considered the tactical advantage of blending their elemental abilities in this freezing weather. Before he could answer, the vehicle rounded a long curve on the icy highway, and the distant, dark silhouette of the Westridge overpass finally began to rise against the bright, frosty winter sky.

Briggs looked over at Kailee, a faint, rare smile touching the corner of his mouth before his expression turned serious. “It’s a solid strategy,” he agreed, his deep voice carrying over the hum of the heater. “Wind feeds fire. If we time it right, your currents can spread my flames across a wider radius and raise the combustion temperature significantly.”

He leaned in slightly, offering a few tactical tips. “But we have to be precise. If your wind is too weak, the fire won’t spread fast enough. If it’s too aggressive, you’ll scatter the flames and burn through the oxygen, snuffing my fire out entirely. We’ll need to synchronize our outputs.”

Kailee listened intently, nodding along as she processed the advice.

“Next time we hit a cluster of level-twos, we’ll test the ignition delay,” Briggs concluded, settling back into his seat. “Consider it a done deal.”

Up front, Jake kept his eyes glued to the icy asphalt as the dark, concrete skeleton of the Westridge overpass loomed closer, casting a long, cold shadow over the road ahead.

The conversation in the heated vehicle quickly sparked a chain reaction. With Briggs and Kailee setting the template, the rest of the team immediately began brainstorming how to combine their unique abilities for maximum devastation.

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