Rewrite the Apocalypse dream (by Dee Cari) novel Chapter 300

Chapter 300 Brad And The Apartment Complex

Finished

next morning, Joanna got the team ready. Everyone was dressed in sturdy unremarkable clothes along with heavy scarves and face masks to hide their features. Sitting around the empty room, Joanna, Kailee, RJ, Will, and Briggs put various weapons, clothing, and small rations together. Not long after, Fletcher knocked on the door. He came in, shutting it tight behind him. Surprised to see the other members he masked his reaction and spoke to Joanna. “We will tell everyone you are my distant cousin from Aurora, and made your way here before the freeze. None of my guards recognized you last night and honestly it would take me a while to recognize you with your current look.”

Joanna’s red brownish hair and style was very different. She normally wore her hair in a braid but chose to wear it in a high ponytail. She looked pretty and approachable instead of terrifying and cold.

Fletcher handed Joanna a walkie-talkie before continuing in a low, measured voice. “I will put you six blocks from here where the new settlers are housed. It’s an old apartment complex. There is a shared latrine, but it has fireplaces for survivors to cook. There are a total of three teams that hunt zombies. Each team is expected to turn in fifteen cores a day to Brad. I am telling Brad to rotate you guys in the teams, and he thinks you are only there for a little while to get the hang of the base before I bring you into the fold… since you’re family.”

Joanna tucked the walkie-talkie securely into her jacket, absorbing the details of the cover story. Working within the hunting teams would give them the perfect excuse to move around the perimeter and sniff out the mole without raising suspicion from the upper brass.

She looked at her crew, who all silently nodded, ready to play their parts as new, struggling settlers. “Understood,” Joanna said, her approachable expression perfectly masking her sharp focus. “Let’s head to the apartment complex.”

The two cars arrived at the apartment complex, cutting through the biting wind. Inside, Brad sat on the bottom floor in the old manager’s office. The building was run down, but it at least had warmth inside, offering a stark contrast to the freezing weather outside. A few earth and metal ability users had made small, crude fireplaces out of coal to heat the concrete space.

Seeing Fletcher walk in, Brad stood up and came out of the office. “Sir, I prepared the apartment on the fourth floor for this team,” he said, bowing his head slightly.

Brad was a short man with long, greasy brown hair. He looked completely worn out and thin from the harsh apocalyptic conditions, but he still carried himself with the inflated posture of someone who thought they were incredibly important.

Fletcher gave a curt nod. He grabbed the rusty key from Brad’s hand and turned, handing it directly to Briggs. Since Briggs was built like a linebacker and naturally carried a commanding, lethal presence, they had decided it was best to make him the official lead of their group while they were stationed here. It would keep the spotlight entirely off Joanna.

Brad shifted his gaze to Briggs, blinking at the large man’s intimidating frame, before looking over at Joanna. With her high ponytail and approachable look, she easily passed for a grateful, freshly arrived relative.

“Get your gear upstairs and settle in quickly,” Fletcher instructed the group, .playing the part of the busy, high-ranking official. “Brad, show them which hunting rotation they are on. They need to earn their keep like everyone else.”

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1806 Sat, Oct 10

Chapter 300 Brad And The Apartment Complex

Finished

“Right away, sir,” Brad said, puffing out his chest as he pulled out a stained clipboard. “We have a slot opening up on the western sector route in an hour. Your team will join the groups going out and every group will be expected to bring back fifteen cores by nightfall, no exceptions. Any extra cores are kept by you”

Fletcher walked with them up the concrete stairs to their apartment, number 4003. When Briggs unlocked the door, the heavy scent of stale dust, damp concrete, and old soot washed over them.

The apartment was small, cramped, and visibly scarred by the apocalypse. Grimy, peeling wallpaper hung in strips from the walls, revealing the rough drywall underneath. The main living room and connected small kitchen were stripped down to the bare essentials. Greasy, broken countertops lined the kitchen wall, alongside a rusted sink that hadn’t seen running water in months.

To combat the biting cold, crude engineering had taken over the space. In the corner of the living room and inside each of the two small bedrooms, earth and metal ability users had constructed small, rough brick fireplaces. Thick, black metal stovepipes served as chimneys, venting straight out through the tops of windows that had been heavily boarded up with mismatched scrap wood and duct tape. Dark soot stained the walls around each hearth, leaving a permanent layer of grime over the entire apartment.

The two bedrooms were sparse, containing only a couple of stained, threadbare mattresses thrown directly onto the cold floor. It was a bleak, dirty refuge, but the faint warmth radiating from the coal embers in the hearths made it livable.

Fletcher closed the door behind them, masking his distaste for the squalor, and turned to Joanna and Briggs to give his final instructions before leaving them to their undercover work.

Joanna barely spared a glance at the dirty apartment and looked at Fletcher with her brow raised. Fletcher colored slightly under her gaze. “I am going to check in on you several times a week,” he said. “It will keep the worst from happening to your team.”

Kailee sneered, looking around the grimy space. “Don’t you have control over your base?”

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