Rewrite the Apocalypse dream (by Dee Cari) novel Chapter 301

Chapter 301 The First Group Of Survivors

Finished

“Listen up, because I won’t go easy on you,” Brad sneered, tapping his stained clipboard against his thigh as Briggs, RJ, Will, and Joanna stepped into the lobby. He looked them up and down, his nose wrinkling in disgust before cutting them down in a vicious, condescending voice. “You’re only here because of Fletcher. Don’t think you will ever amount to much in this base. Out here, handouts don’t exist. Fifteen cores must be turned in by the group daily, and they must be level two or higher.”

RJ frowned and asked, “I thought any cores would be accepted?”

Brad shut her up viciously, glaring right into her face. “Anything after fifteen level two cores, you keep! Don’t give me level ones or they don’t count! Cores buy rations, or you can trade things you manage to scavenge. If you don’t bring back the count by nightfall, you starve.”

Before Briggs could respond, the heavy door to the upper stairwell creaked open. Five survivors slowly came down into the lobby. They were incredibly dirty and terribly skinny, the harsh winter slowly killing them bit by bit. Their clothes were mismatched, tattered rags, and several of them were visibly missing a finger from severe frostbite.

The group consisted of three men and two women. They moved with hollow, haunted expressions, carrying crude weapons made of sharpened rebar and pipes. They didn’t even look at Joanna’s team; their blank eyes were fixed entirely on Brad’s office, desperate to trade whatever meager scraps they had left for a moment of warmth.

Brad scoffed at the sight of them, then looked back at Briggs. “See that? That’s what happens to dead weight. Now get out there and find my cores.”

Before Joanna could reply, the door to the lobby creaked fully open. One of the women from the struggling group stopped and called them over, her voice raspy from the freezing air.

“We are going to the laundromat first, then to the apartment next door,” she said, pulling her thin scarf tighter around her neck. “Last week, we had a level three zombie climbing around that block and we turned back. Come with us and we can split everything we find.”

She eyed Briggs and Will with a measured, cautious glance, clearly intimidated by Briggs’s linebacker build and unsure of their intentions. However, a small, weary smile broke across her gaunt face as she looked at Joanna and RJ, finding comfort in seeing other women out in the brutal elements.

Joanna quickly masked her sharp tactical instincts with her new, approachable facade. She nodded warmly at the woman. “That sounds like a fair deal. We’re new here, so we’d appreciate the backup.”

The group marched out of the building and into the blinding, icy wind. The survivor group went down one block and Joanna’s group went up one block agreeing to meet up later at the laundromat. Even though the worst of the winter passed, it was still deadly to be out for too long. Once they were two blocks away from the apartment complex and out of sight, RJ let out a low, angry whistle. “Level two minimum? And we have to pretend to be level three survivors? It’s going to be hard holding back after listening to that guy.”

“Control is the point, RJ,” Joanna reminded her sharply, her face mask muffling her voice as she scanned the snowy ruins. “If a mole is watching, we cannot stick out. Let’s make this look messy.”

As they walked through the frozen, ruined streets, they quickly encountered small clusters of the undead. Following Joanna’s orders to stay under the radar, they kept their high-level abilities completely hidden, dragging out the fights to mimic a struggling, low-tier squad.

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Chapter 301 The First Group Of Survivors

Finished

Despite the act, they managed to put down four zombies. RJ and Briggs carefully extracted the prizes from

frozen skulls: one level three core, two level two cores, and one level one core. They immediately handed all the cores to Joanna, who put them securely in her pocket.

“Not a bad start,” RJ muttered in a low voice, knowing they still needed thirteen more level twos or threes to satisfy Brad’s daily quota.

“Keep your eyes open,” Joanna warned, her face mask muffling her voice as she scanned the snowy, skeletal buildings around them. “The wind is picking up.”

Seeking shelter from the biting cold and looking for more targets, Briggs pushed open the cracked glass door of an abandoned clothing store. The door gave a half-frozen shriek against the frame, loud enough that Will winced and RJ shot him a look. Inside, racks of faded, frost-covered summer clothing and empty/ mannequins lined the dark interior, some of the mannequins toppled over in a frozen tangle of limbs. All warm clothing had long been taken – only bare hangers hung on the winter racks, swinging slightly in the draft.

The team stepped inside and the floorboards groaned under their boots, old nails shrieking against dry wood. Before the sound finished echoing, a sharp voice cut through the shadows, incredibly aggressive.

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