Rewrite the Apocalypse dream (by Dee Cari) novel Chapter 284

Chapter 284 The Mutated Super Bear

Finished

They materialized right by the edge of the steaming hot spring. The healing properties of the warm water had worked wonders over the past few hours; Kailee was already sitting up, the vacant, milky white glaze completely gone from her eyes, and her skin looking a lot better.

Joanna gestured, and Piper glided to the water’s edge. The mutated lily plant leaned forward, her pale petals shifting as she studied Kailee. Delicate vines uncurled, stroking the girl’s shoulders and arms with a gentle, rhythmic pressure. Was Piper giving Kailee a massage? Kind of creepy.

“Just stay in the spring for a few more hours,” Joanna instructed, looking down at the recovering air-user.

Kailee nodded, leaning back against the smooth stone edge of the spring. “Actually, boss, I am really wanting a strawberry shake!”

Joanna laughed, the tension from the basement battle finally dissipating. With a quick thought, she manifested a thick, cold strawberry shake from her massive food stockpile and handed it down to her. “Let Piper help you with anything else. We should be back in a few hours, and I will have Michelle look at you.

An instant later, Joanna pulled Jake, Julian, and RJ back outside into the crisp, snow-dusted air of the farmhouse porch.

She turned to the CEO immediately. “Julian, you know the town that Greg is in?”

“Yeah,” Julian replied, pausing against the winter breeze. “I scouted it when I was looking for properties out here. They seemed like a close-knit community, and I didn’t want that with me stockpiling. The less people who knew about my plans, the better. So I settled here instead.”

Joanna nodded, then waved her hand toward the open driveway. With a heavy metallic thud, she pulled her massive tactical vehicle, “The Beast,’ out of her storage space. She tossed the keys directly to the CEO. “Let’s see how it handles these mountains.”

“Always happy to drive,” Julian smiled, a confident glint returning to his eyes as he walked over and opened the heavy door.

They arrived in the town, which nestled only ten miles deep into the rugged mountains. As Julian slowed “The Beast” to a crawl, the team stared out at a community that looked incredibly small and completely

empty.

Joanna tensed up, her hand instinctively dropping to her weapon. Something was undeniably strange here. Unlike every other settlement they had encountered since the world fell apart, there were no crashed vehicles blocking the intersections. There were no broken windows on the storefronts, no signs of forced entry, and absolutely no zombies wandering the snow-dusted streets.

The silence wasn’t the chaotic quiet of a disaster zone—it was the eerie, pristine stillness of a town that had simply been abandoned in perfect order.

Julian kept his foot lightly on the brake, the low rumble of the tactical vehicle’s engine echoing loudly off the clean, undisturbed buildings. “This isn’t right,” he muttered, his eyes scanning the vacant sidewalks. “Even if everyone fled, they would have left a mess behind.”

RJ closed her eyes, leaning forward to expand her telepathic radar outward into the empty blocks. “I’m not picking up any mindless thoughts,” she whispered, her brow furrowing in deep confusion. “No zombies. But

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10:06 Sat, Oct 10

Chapter 284 The Mutated Super Bear

Finished

Joanna… there’s a strange, heavy static in the air. I can’t feel any human minds either, but it feels like the whole place is waiting.”

Jak leaned against the passenger window, his skin taking on a faint metallic sheen as he braced for an ambush. “A town this clean in the middle of an apocalypse? It’s a trap. It has to be.”

Joanna looked through the reinforced windshield, her mind searching for Greg’s possible location among the identical, quiet houses. “Keep moving slowly, Julian,” she cornmanded quietly. “Let’s find his aunt’s place. But keep your foot ready on that gas pedal.”

Julian steered “The Beast” down the pristine, unnervingly quiet streets, guided by the address Joanna provided. They finally pulled up to a small, charming Victorian-style house. Aside from a light dusting of snow on its wrap-around porch, the property looked completely untouched by the apocalypse-no broken railings, no shattered glass, just an empty, silent facade.

The team stepped out of the tactical vehicle, weapons raised. RJ immediately scanned the property, her face tightening. “The mental static is stronger here,” she whispered. “It’s like a heavy blanket soaking up every echo.”

Joanna led the way, pushing open the unlocked front door. Inside, the home was neatly kept, but the dining table held a jarring piece of evidence. Resting right in the center was a torn piece of legal notepad paper. Joanna hurried over and picked it up. Written in messy, frantic scrawlings, the note read:

Joanna be careful, something dark is hunting us. I am at the water tower.

“It’s Greg’s handwriting,” Joanna said, her voice turning icy as she memorized the words. “He was alive when he wrote this.”

“But look outside,” Jake muttered, pointing through the thin lace curtains of the Victorian window.

The silence of the town suddenly shattered, but not with screams. From the surrounding houses, doors began to click open in perfect unison. Dozens of townspeople stepped out onto the snow-dusted sidewalks. Their movements weren’t jerky like mindless zombies; they walked with an eerie, synchronized grace. Yet, their eyes were entirely vacant-wide, unblinking, and glossy.

“Joanna…” RJ gasped, stepping back as she strained her abilities. “I can’t sense any zombie thoughts or human brainwaves out there. There’s nothing. I’m trying to listen for their hearts… but I can’t hear a single heartbeat. Are they dead?”

Before anyone could answer, heavy, thunderous footsteps crunched into the snow as a grotesque, towering nightmare rounded the street corner. It was a massive mutated bear, its colossal frame easily twice the size of a grizzly. Thick, pitch-black fur fell away to reveal patches of raw, exposed muscle pulsing with a faint, sickening violet glow. Bizarre, parasitic tendrils split from its spine, weaving through the air like a crown of thorns. It had no eyes-only a hollow, cracked skull that radiated a powerful psychic hum. As it lumbered forward, the silent, breathless townspeople formed a defensive, wall-like perimeter around it, their empty gazes locking onto Joanna’s group.

The creature let out a low, sub-audible roar that rattled the floorboards of the Victorian house. Instantly, the throngs of unbreathing citizens began advancing toward the porch, completely unbothered by the cold or the weapons pointed at them.

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